





S-- 





&5^^^D 



She §;0wtMulm 4 j} (Stetetate. 



EXERCISES 



ON THE 



150th ANNIVERSARY OF THE SETTLEMENT 



OF 



Dld Nutfield 
) ) 



COMPKISIXG THE TOWXS OF 



LONDONDERRY, DEBRY, WINDHAM, AND PAETS OF MAN- 
CHESTER, HUDSON AND SALEM, N. H., 



JUNE io, 1869. 



COMPILED BY ROBERT C. MACK.* 

If 



1878 



S»*! 



MANCHESTER: O 
PUBLISHED BY JOHN B. CLARKE. 

1870. 






PRELIMINARY 



At the annual . meeting of Derry, March, 1868, the select- 
men of that town were instructed to appoint a committee 
to make arrangements, in cooperation with Londonderry-, 
for the observance of the one hundred and fiftieth anniver- 
sary of the settlement of the towns, united at first under the 
name of Nuffield, 1719, and three years later, at the time 
of incorporation, under the name of Londonderry. In obe- 
dience to the above instructions, the selectmen appointed 
George F. Adams, Henry E. Eastman, Charles C. Parker, 
James C. Taylor and James H. Crombie. Alfred Boyd, 
James Priest and William D. White, were afterwards 
added. 

At the November election, 1868, the town of London- 
derry chose for a committee, Eobert C. Mack, Jonathan 
McAllister, Daniel Wilkins, John Gilcreast and John 
Dickey. To these were subsequently joined Henry Crowell 
and Montgomery Dickey. James A. Weston, Samuel N. 
Bell, John D. Patterson and George W. Pinkerton served 
on the committee, under appointment of the City Council 
of Manchester, and Samuel Campbell and George W. 
Weston represented Windham. 

The Committee of Arrangements, thus constituted, met 
December 9, 1868, and organized by choice of George F. 
Adams as Chairman, R. C. Mack, Secretary, and Jonathan 
McAllister, Treasurer. 



At subsequent meetings, the 10th of June, 1869, was 
fixed upon as the day for the proposed celebration, and 
Deny Depot the place. 

The committee selected, with entire unanimity, the Hon. 
George W. Patterson, of Westfield, New York, for Presi- 
dent of the day, and the Hon. Charles H. Bell, of Exeter, 
N. H., to make the leading address. The ability of Mr. 
Patterson, his commanding presence and his extensive ac- 
quaintance, in union with full sympathy with the objects 
of the celebration, indicated him to be the man for the 
occasion ; and it seemed to the committee eminently proper 
and right that the selection of Orator should come from a 
family which had contributed so much to the old and later 
renown of the ancient town. 

Rev. E. G. Parsons, of Derry, Henry E. Eastman and 
the Secretary, were designated to arrange a programme for 
the exercises of the day, and to invite speakers. The 
latter was a matter of some delicacy, as the selection was 
to be made from a very large number of distinguished men 
who were expected to be present, and who could appropri- 
ately instruct and entertain the audience. 

After careful consideration, letters of invitation were 
addressed to the following named gentlemen, nearly all of 
whom signified acceptance : 

Hon. James W. Patterson, of Hanover, N. H. ; Rev. 
John H. Morrison, of Milton, Mass. ; Hon. Elias Haskett 
Derby, of Boston, Mass. ; Rev. James T. McColloin, of Med- 
ford, Mass. ; Hon. Horace Greeley; Hon. George W. Mor- 
rison, of Manchester, N. H.; Rev. Rufus Anderson, D. D., of 
Boston; Hon. Aaron P. Stevens; Rev. Samuel H. Taylor, 
LL. D., of Andover, Mass. ; Hon. George W. Nesmith, of 
Franklin, N. H. ; Rev. Nathaniel Bouton, D. D., of Con- 
cord, N. H. ; Hon. Wm. W. Campbell, of Cherry Valley, 
N. Y. ; Rev. Cyrus W. Wallace, D. D., of Manchester, 
N. H., and Rev. Dr. Martin Anderson, of Rochester, N. Y. 



Rev. Dr. Daniel Fitz, of Ipswich, Mass. — since gone to his 
reward — was selected to offer prayer. 

Invitations to be present were extended to the Amoskeag 
Veterans, the City Government of Manchester, N. H., the 
Mayor and Aldermen of Londonderry, Ireland, etc., and 
some three thousand cards of invitation were sent to indi- 
viduals in various parts of the country, a fac-simile of 
which may be found on the succeeding pages. 



NUTFIELD, APRIL n, 1719, O. S. 




1869. 
LONDONDERRY, DERRY, WINDHAM, MANCHESTER 

WILL RECEIVE THEIR FRIENDS AT DERRY, • 

THURSDAY, JUNE 10th, 1869. 



150 th ANNIVERSARY OF SETTLEMENT. 



"Should auld acquaintance be forgot."— Burns. 



COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. 




Wlc/y 
















^^7^2^^^ 



THE CELEBEATION. 



The ringing bells and the booming cannon announced to 
the citizens of Londonderry and Deny that the morning of 
the 10th had arrived, and all were early astir. Shortly 
after eight o'clock, a large procession was formed at Deny 
Upper Village, Henry E. Eastman, Chief Marshal ; Na- 
thaniel Warner, John L. Cunningham, Horace A. Hill and 
Thomas Savage, of Deny, Assistant Marshals ; the whole 
under escort of the Amoskeag Veterans, General Natt 
Head in command, Lt. Col. John B. Clarke second in com- 
mand, accompanied by the Manchester Cornet Band, with 
Major Francis H. Pike as drum major. 

The route was through the village, to Adams Female 
Seminary, and back to the point of starting ; thence 
through Derry Lower Village, to the large tent which had 
been erected for the purposes of the celebration on " Doak's 
Plains," near Alfred Boyd's. At the lower village, the 
procession received the students of Pinkerton Academy, 
marshaled by the preceptor, Mr. Hazen, and many pupils 
from the common schools. 

On the arrival of the train from Boston, at ten o'clock 
a. m., another procession was formed, under direction of 
Marshals William S. Pillsbury, Gilbert Hills and Ephraim 
W. Harvey, of Londonderry, which proceeded without 
delay to the place of meeting. It consisted mainly of 
residents of Londonderry, Windham and Salem, who were 
joined by many eminent citizens of Boston, Lowell, and 
other places. The Rainbow Lodge of Good Templars, 
from Londonderry, in partial regalia, formed a conspicuous 



10 

feature of this procession. Gilmore's Band, of twenty-five 
pieces, from Boston, Mr. Arbuckle, Leader, furnished the 
music. 

At eleven o'clock the meeting was called to order by the 
chairman of the committee of arrangements, Mr. Adams, 
who commenced by saying, " Let us have peace," and the 
vast assembly subsided into as good a state of quiet as the 
circumstances would permit, while he made a brief wel- 
come address, and introduced the 

OFFICERS OF THE DAY. 
PRESIDENT. 

Hon. George W. Patterson, of Westfield, New York. 

VICE-PRESIDENTS. 

Thomas Patterson, Joseph Dickey, Aaron P. Hardy, 
Charles Hurd, Francis Manter, Jonathan Savory, Warren 
Kichardson, Reed P. Clark, Samuel Boyce, Alexander Mc- 
Gregor, John Greeley, Londonderry ; William Anderson, 
David Currier, James W. Nesmith, Joseph Morrison, 
Humphrey Choate, Edward P. Parker, Samuel Clarke, 
Nehcmiah Choate, Philip Nowell, Richard Melvin, James 
Miltimore, Derry ; Daniel Mack, George W. Pinkerton, 
Samuel P. Jackson, David R. Leach, Horace P. Watts, 
Augustus F. Hall, George Porter, Israel Webster, James 
P. Eaton, Manchester ; Samuel W. Simpson, James Ander- 
son, Loren Thayer, Theodore Dinsmere, Windham. 

SECRETARIES. 

Robert C. Mack, of Londonderry ; William W. Poor, of 
Derry; James M. Campbell, of Manchester; and George 
W. Weston, of Windham. 

A highly appropriate prayer was offered by Rev. Caleb 
E. Fisher, of Lawrence, Mass., to which succeeded the 
Address of Welcome, by the President of the day. 



. 11 

ADDRESS. 

BY HON. G. W. PATTERSON. 

Mr. Patterson, on taking the chair, thanked the Com- 
mittee of Arrangements for the honor conferred in selecting 
him to preside at such a gathering of the sons and daugh- 
ters of old Londonderry, and spoke as follows : 

The duties of the chair will not he arduous, for every 
person will be in order to-day. We have met to celebrate 
the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement 
of this good old town, and I am highly gratified in meeting 
so many of the [descendants of the early settlers on this 
occasion, representing as they do, all of New England, New 
York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and, for 
aught I know, every state in the Union. Everywhere you 
go, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, you will see the de- 
scendants of old Londonderry ; and wherever one is met, 
you will find him every inch a man. They are the true 
representatives of civil and religious liberty. The first, 
second, third and fourth generations have gone to their 
rest, and it becomes us to remember their virtues and see 
that the liberties inherited from them are transmitted un- 
impaired to our posterity. 

How little do those who now inhabit the town know of 
the privations and sufferings of the early settlers. When 
they came here they had no shelter but the broad canopy 
of heaven, and for many years the log cabin was their only 
dwelling place. They located themselves on each side of 
" West Running brook," in what was, and still is, known as 
the " Double Range." This was said to be for their safety 
in case of an attack by the Indians. History shows that 
the early settlers, when attending religious worship on the 
Sabbath, always went armed, and the first minister, Rev. 



12 . 

Mr. MacGregor, carried his gun into the pulpit, well loaded 
and primed, ready to repel an attack. But had the early 
settlers known the true character of the Indians, they 
would have feared no danger from them. They had dealt 
fairly and honestly by the natives, and after acquiring title 
from the Crown of Great Britain they, like honest men, (as 
they were,) purchased and paid the Indians for their right 
to the township, which was originally about twelve miles 
square, and during all the Indian wars of New England, 
no man, woman or child in Londonderry was ever injured 
or disturbed in their persons or property by the Indians. 

I have had occasion to know much of the Indian charac- 
ter. After my settlement in western New York, near the 
Genesee river, the Indians were my nearest neighbors for 
several years, and I never experienced anything but kind- 
ness at their hands, and I have never known an instance of 
Indian troubles, from the landing of the Pilgrims at Ply- 
mouth Rock to the present day, where the whites were not 
the aggressors. The Indian fires are hardly extinguished 
in their wigwams till the most worthless of the white race 
take possession. Even before the title to the land is ob- 
tained by the government, and when the Indians defend 
their rights, the newspapers are filled with accounts of " In- 
dian outrages." 

I will not detain the audience with any extended re- 
marks, but I must be permitted to congratulate the Com- 
mittee of Arrangements upon their success in gathering to- 
gether so large an assembly of the descendants of the early 
settlers, and to one and all I give a most hearty welcome. 



[The following poem was read by Rev. J. T. McCollom.] 

OUK HOME JUBILEE. 

BY LUCINDA J. GEEGG. 

Let Nutfield to-day sound its merriest notes ! 
Let the hills and the vales catch the strain as it floats ! 
Ring out the loud echoes from mountain to sea, 
And rejoice in the day of our glad Jubilee ! 

From the East, from the North, from the prairies afar, 
From the Pine Tree domains to the southern Lone Star, 
"We wanderers come to the cherished home-fold, 
To unite in one song for the bright days of old. 

A song for the true, and a song for the brave, 
Who came from afar o'er the easterly wave ; 
One song for the lake on whose beautiful shore, 
Their wanderings ended, they worshiped of yore. 

To-day we will sing of the brown homes they made, 
Where earnest hands toiled, and where loving hearts prayed ; 
And the home for the Sabbath, just over the way, 
The sacred old church, that's one hundred to-day. 

/ 

In our jubilant song comes a sadder refrain ; — 

For the forms of the fathers we see not again. 

In their green-covered houses on yonder white hill, 

With the marble doors locked, they are sleeping so still! 

In that glorious day when the sleepers arise, 
When together we go to our home in the skies, 
It is then we shall know, — but, oh! never till then, — 
How much we all owe to those brave, faithful men. 

Adown the long years comes a noble array; 
Ah! many are found on Fame's roll-call to-day. 
From these valleys and hills has an army of worth, 
Of talent and trust, gone to bless the wide earth. 

Of those left at home, there is many a name, 

All heroic, all noble, unspoken by Fame;— 

One sigh for the dead, — for the living, one song ! 

God bless the loved home-land that claims all the throng ! 



14 

Then hail to old Dewy! its lake and its lea, 
Its beautiful stream winding down to the sea, 
Its wondrous old trees with the evergreen crest, 
Its fine, fertile fields, sloping green to the west! 

All hail to old Nutfield! whose broader expanse 
Our forefathers claimed as the years did advance ; 
We always shall love thee, wherever we roam, 
And breathe out a prayer for our earliest home. 

But Time 's speeding onward; how soon in its flight 

Will it bear us afar and away out of sight! 

How few, on another centennial day, 

Will return and talk over the years sped away! 

But we hope, oh! we hope, when our earth-day is done, 
When our tent 's taken down at life's last setting sun, 
On the Plains all immortal, with glory untold, 
We shall sing of the days that can never grow old. 



15 



ORATION. 

BY HON. CHARLES H. BELL. 

"We have come together here to-day, from far and near, 
to visit the birthplace of our fathers ; to look upon the spot 
where the dust of our ancestors lies buried ; to refresh our 
recollections of the old home, whose traditions were among 
the wonders of our childhood, and whose history is a lesson 
to our riper years ; to do honor to the memory of those 
whose blood flows in our veins, and to whose example and 
influence we are deeply indebted. 

On this birthday of this ancient and respectable town- 
ship, it is fitting that we, her children and descendants, 
should pause in our busy pursuits, lay aside the cares of the 
day and the anxiety for the morrow, and recall the mem- 
ories of the times which are past. We shall learn to esti- 
mate our advantages more justly, when we contrast them 
with the meagre resources of an earlier period ; we shall 
prize the names we inherit more highly, when we remem- 
ber the virtues which made them long since respected ; we 
shall order our lives more wisely, when we see the success 
and honor which have crowned years of industry and up- 
rightness. 

This history of this township has been written by one, 
now no more, who fortunately survived to add that to his 
other labors of usefulness here ; and we are confidently 
expecting more copious annals from a son of the soil, whose 
tastes and pursuits fit him admirably for the work. I shall 
not, therefore, in this brief address, attempt anything like 
a historical sketch, but simply invite you to consider with 
me the character of the early settlers of Londonderry, and 
the influence of the settlement upon the community. 



16 

There are two circumstances, peculiar to the history of 
Londonderry, which should be stated by way of introduc- 
tion. The early settlers were, almost without an exception, 
homogeneous ; of the same race, religion, interests and 
habits, and with little diversity of fortune or of education : 
in this respect the settlement here is almost without a par- 
allel in the annals of the country. The other fact, and 
which is no less remarkable, is the prodigious increase in 
numbers which the descendants of the early Londonderry 
stock have attained, in the four or five generations which 
have passed away since the colony, of such slender propor- 
tions, was formed. It is estimated by persons best qualified 
to pronounce upon the subject, that the aggregate, in every 
section, would now fall little short of fifty thousand souls. 
• 

On the eleventh day of April, one hundred and fifty 
years ago, sixteen families, from the north of Ireland, 
came to this place, the advance guard of a body of more 
than four times their number, who in the course of that 
and the succeeding year, established themselves here. 
They are at this day designated as Scotcli Irish, a term 
which is not inappropriate, as descriptive of their origin 
and prior abode, though it has given rise to not a little mis- 
apprehfnsion. It has been supposed by some writers, that 
the name denotes a mixed nationality of Scottish and Irish 
descent ; and, in order to adapt the facts to their theory, 
they have fancied that they could detect in the character of 
the Londonderry settlers the traits derived from each an- 
cestry. But history fails to bear out the ingenious hypoth- 
esis ; for it is certain that there was no mixture of blood 
in the little band who cast their fortunes here ; they were 
of Scottish lineage, pure and simple. They sprang from a 
colony of Scots, which had planted itself more than a cen- 
tury before, in the province of Ulster, in Ireland, and whose, 
numbers had been increased, from time to time afterward, 
by fresh arrivals from the parent country. The ancestors 
of the greater part of the Londonderry settlers made their 



17 

way to Ireland in the latter half of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, during the relentless persecution of the covenanters 
in Scotland, under the leadership of the brutal Claverhouse. 

In Ireland, the Scottish immigrants remained as distinct 
from the native population as if they had never crossed the 
channel. They were among the Irish, but not of them. 
The Scots were, to a man, Presbyterians of the straitest 
sect, while their neighbors were as uniformly Romanists. 
The barriers of a different nationality and religion would 
have sufficed to keep the races wide enough asunder ; but 
there were other circumstances to generate an actual re- 
pulsion between them. The lands in Ulster, which the 
Scottish community enjoyed, were allotted to them as a 
reward of their military services in extinguishing a rebel- 
lion of the Catholics ; and the Irish population regarded 
them with the jealousy and rancor which a proud and sub- 
jected race are prone to feel at the presence of those who 
have been victorious over them. 

Nor had the residence of the Scottish colony in Ireland 
passed without overt demonstrations of this hostile feeling. 
Repeated outbreaks of civil strife had succeeded each other, 
in which the rival races were arrayed in arms, in opposing 
ranks ; culminating in the memorable siege of London- 
derry, the horrors of which fill one of the saddest pages of 
history. The idea, therefore, that intermarriages, or any 
relations of intimacy, would have been tolerated between 
those of races so constantly and bitterly at variance, is sim- 
ply chimerical. 

The main cause which impelled our ancestors to quit 
their home in the old world, and seek an abode in the wilds 
of America, is to be found, without doubt, in their desire 
for religious liberty. They were not the persons to take so 
important a step simply from love of novelty and excite- 
ment ; for the leaders of the expedition were men of ma- 
ture years, with families dependent upon them. They were 
no mere speculators or needy adventurers, for they were all 
2 



18 

in comfortable circumstances, and some of them persons of 
substance. 

It is true that at the period of their emigration they were 
subjected to no persecution. The Protestant party was in 
the ascendancy in the government of Great Britain, and all 
were suffered to enjoy their religious opinions and worship 
without molestation. But they had abundant reason to 
know that the causes which engendered the religious ani- 
mosities of former days might at any time be revived, on 
the accession of a new sovereign. In addition to this, they 
were subjected to jealous and heavy taxation, to sustain the 
church establishment with which they had little sympathy ; 
and, as we have seen, were surrounded by a population for- 
eign in sentiment and feeling. 

Accounts had reached them, that in the new world a 
people, holding a faith substantially like their own were 
permitted through every change of dynasty to enjoy their 
opinions undisturbed ; that here was no levying of tithes to 
maintain an unfriendly episcopal establishment ; no zealots 
of the church of B-ome to seize the first pretexts for draw- 
ing the sword and lighting the fires of persecution ; but an 
orderly society, abundant territory, fertile soil, easy to be 
acquired and of unfettered tenure. 

If there were some dark shades in the picture which 
presented these attractions, if there was less of tolerance 
and more of a jealous and intrusive spirit in the new coun- 
try, a more inclement climate and greater risks and pri- 
vations in a frontier life, than they imagined, there is little 
probability that these drawbacks, if known, would have 
weighed with persons of their resolute nature and serious 
purposes, to induce them for a moment to hesitate in carry- 
ing out their design. 

No change but the dread summons of death could have 
so completely sundered all their relations to those whom, 
outside their own circle, they held nearest and dearest on 
earth, as their removal to this country. The pang of sep- 



19 

aration, which overflowed the eyes of those of the gentle 
sex and tender years, must have weighed heavily on the 
hearts of the grave seniors of the little company. But they 
did not falter. And so they bade adieu to the scenes and 
friends of their youth, and embarked on the voyage which 
shut them from their view forever ; and thenceforward their 
destinies were linked with those of another hemisphere. 

So vast are the changes which the last century and a 
half have witnessed, that it is not easy at this day to form 
an adequate conception of the condition in which the Lon- 
donderry settlers found themselves, on their arrival here. 
They were literally upon the frontier of civilization. On 
the east and west there were indeed slender colonies of 
Europeans, but only at the distance of ten or fifteen miles, 
through the trackless woods ; while on the north there was 
no human habitation between them and the line of Canada, 
save the wigwam of the savage. 

It was in the early spring. The snows had not disap- 
peared from the shaded earth, and scarcely a bud had ven- 
tured forth, to give promise of the season of flowers and 
fruits. The country was covered with the primeval forest, 
and nature promised nothing for their support beyond the 
nuts upon the trees and the herbage of the meadows. All 
else was to be wrung from her grasp by stern and unre- 
mitting toil. A home was to be created in the wilderness. 
Neither beasts of burden, nor any of even the simplest 
contrivances for saving manual labor, were at their com- 
mand, but everything was to be accomplished by sheer 
force of human muscle and sinew ; so that their early life 
here was one continuous struggle to secure the bare neces- 
sities of existence, — shelter, warmth and food. 

Nor had they the resources to divert and relieve the 
mind jaded by a life of daily interminable toil. The press, 
the lecture room and the post office were unknown to 
them, or existed but as a faint shadow of their present 
reality. There were books, indeed, but scanty in numbers, 



20 

and in general little adapted for recreation and entertain- 
ment. They were in good part solid tomes of controver- 
sial theology upon speculative points of doctrine, remem- 
bered now (not unhappily) only by the Old Mortalities of 
our day. What would be the feelings of the farmer at the 
present time, if, after the fatigues of the day, instead of 
solacing himself with a well filled newspaper (perhaps fresh 
from the tireless press which the energy of a descendant 
of Londonderry sires has founded in the metropolis of 
the country), he should find himself reduced to the whole- 
some but somewhat meagre diet of the " Self Justiciary 
Convicted and Condemn'd," or the " Marrow of Modern 
Divinity"? 

Another trouble soon came upon our colonists, in the 
form of a difficulty about their title to the soil. This was 
claimed by other parties, who had procured a conveyance 
of the land from some pretended Indian proprietor, and 
were jealous of the community of Irish, as they called 
them, which was so manfully intrenching itself in their 
vicinity. It is said that an attempt was even set on foot to 
dispossess our fathers by force, and that an armed party, 
for that purpose, came upon them when they were assembled 
at their devotions in the open air. The invaders, after 
waitiug till the exercises were ended, became satisfied that 
it would be no child's play to attempt to eject the stalwart 
worshipers, and abandoned the project. But constant 
warfare was for a long time kept up about the possession of 
certain meadows, which the inhabitants of the lower towns 
claimed the right to mow, and it was there that the sturdy 
Londonderry clergyman waived the protection of his black 
coat, and proposed to settle the question of possession by 
the arm of flesh. 

Amid such trials and difficulties did the early settlers of 
the township lay the foundations of a community that was 
destined to exert a marked influence in the history of the 
state and the country. As may be supposed, they were 



21 

persons of very decided points of character. They belonged 
to the middle rank of life, and had neither great wealth, 
high connections nor distinguished position. Their im- 
press upon their own and succeeding ages was produced by 
the unaided force of their own intellectual and moral 
qualities. 

In noting the leading characteristics of the Londonderry 
settlers, our attention is naturally directed first to their 
deep respect for the observances of religion. It may well 
be supposed that they were exemplary in meeting the 
requirements of the faith for which they had sacrificed and 
suffered so much. They made religion a most important 
part of their every day life. Not only were the public 
worship of Sunday and the preparatory service on a prior 
day punctually attended by young and old, but there were 
devotional exercises on all occasions of interest in the little 
community. Family prayers were daily offered up in every 
dwelling; the children were carefully trained to the acqui- 
sition of biblical knowledge and the speculative theology 
contained in the elaborate catechism of the day, and were 
periodically examined by the ministers, to test their profi- 
ciency in these studies ; and so universal was the interest 
in spiritual concerns, that in four years after the settlement 
was commenced, no fewer than two hundred and thirty 
persons were assembled as church communicants. 

No clergyman accompanied the first installment of immi- 
grants, but in one month after their arrival here they had 
secured one, who passed the remainder of his useful life 
among them. In two years they had completed and opened 
an ample and commodious house of public worship, while 
yet the inhabitants were content to live in humble struc- 
tures of logs ; and the first framed house in the township 
was erected, shortly after, for their minister. These facts 
demonstrate, more forcibly than volumes of description, the 
deep attachment of the settlers to the ordinances and teach- 
ers of their religion. 



22 

In those times, the church and its elders and minister 
constituted a sort of religious tribunal, before which a 
myriad of questions, temporal as well as spiritual, were 
brought for counsel and determination. Their jurisdiction 
was not confined to cases of infraction of the laws of 
religion and morality, it embraced also mooted questions of 
discretion and propriety ; and the judgment of the Session, 
as it was called, was pronounced with much gravity and 
submitted to with great patience, upon matters which could 
now hardly be introduced at a church meeting without a 
smile, and if attempted to be adjudicated upon there, a 
plea to the jurisdiction, as the lawyers phrase it, would be 
quite certain to throw the case out of court. 

The next public enterprise in the infant settlement was 
to make provision for the instruction of the young. The 
settlers were fully alive to the importance of learning. 
They were themselves remarkably intelligent for their 
times and situation in life, and several of their number had 
received the advantages of a university training. They 
speedily erected a suitable school-house, and made arrange- 
ments that it should be opened for the rising generation, 
under a competent teacher, for a large portion of the year. 

The facilities for moral and intellectual improvement 
being thus early provided, the place soon began to advance 
in numbers and consequence. Roads and mills were soon 
in serviceable condition, and log houses began to give place 
to more pretending and comfortable habitations. 

The character of our ancestors for industry and frugality 
was a sure guarantee of the success and prosperity of their 
community. Idleness was only another name for wicked- 
ness, in their vocabulary. The men toiled diligently through 
the livelong day in the improvement of their homesteads, 
or upon works for the general benefit, and the women, 
when not employed in strictly household duties, turned the 
busy wheel, or plied the glancing shuttle. 

As for the lads and lasses, we can hardly believe that 



23 

equal diligence was required of them. If there is truth in 
the adage that " All work and no play makes Jack a dull 
boy," then they must have had their share of fun, for the * 
Jacks of Londonderry were by no means dull boys. It is 
highly probable, however, that when the little hands became 
strong enough to render useful service, the lessons of in- 
dustry were conscientiously and practically inculcated. 

But the men of Londonderry were not without their sea- 
sons of relaxation. At the annual fairs, and at other 
gatherings such as are of frequent occurrence in a small 
and friendly neighborhood, they partook heartily in the 
athletic exercises and the rude sports of the time. "Wed- 
ding ceremonies were made the occasions of great and 
general festivity, and even a death and burial did not pass 
without scenes of hilarity that ill accord with our ideas of 
decorum. 

Their greater faults seem to have been mainly the results 
of the habits of their generation upon a people of exuber- 
ant vitality, and leading a life somewhat austere, while 
affording few opportunities of rational amusement. 11, > 
were of vigorous and robust constitution, bodily and men- 
tally ; capable of much endurance, and with equal capacity 
of enjoyment. Their ordinary life was hard and circum- 
scribed ; and strong natures, long repressed, are always 
prone, in the hour of license, to shake themselves free from 
all restraints. If our fathers had possessed the means of 
a higher class of gratifications in the attractive walks of 
literature and art, they needed but little cultivation to ap- 
preciate them; but the esthetic part of their life was well 
nigh a blank. It is not strange, therefore, that when more 
refined enjoyments were out of reach, they should satisfy 
the craving for variety with the coarser pleasures which 
were at hand. 

Scottish thrift is a familiar term ; and the men of Lon- 
donderry had a full share of the national quality. Poor 
Richard himself could have given them no new lesson 



24 

against wastefulness and prodigality. Yet they were not 
parsimonious ; on the contrary, they were in some directions 
'extremely liberal. The salary of their minister was larger 
than that of the Lieutenant Governor of the province; they 
contributed generously to the aid of those who had met 
with losses ; they practiced a bountiful hospitality ; and 
they took care that their expenditures on all extraordinary 
occasions should rather exceed than fall short of what was 
due to their social position. Hoarding money, for the mere 
love of it, was a thing unknown to them. They were econ- 
omists from principle, and saved wisely that they might 
spend handsomely. 

The Scotch Irish settlers were men of spirit and courage. 
Forty years before, they and their fathers had proved their 
fighting qualities and endurance, amid the protracted con- 
flicts and sufferings at Londonderry in Ireland ; and the 
allotments of land to six, I think, of the settlers in this 
place, were exempt from taxation by a special act granting 
that immunity to all who had borne arms for the King on 
that occasion. The first two ministers here were both par- 
ticipants of the dangers and honors of the siege ; the one 
as a mere youth, who, however, performed yeoman's service ; 
the other as a military officer, who received a wound in 
making a sortie from the city, which left its mark upon his 
face during life. And upon his death, sixteen years after 
this place was settled, there were found here enough of his 
companions in arms and sufferings, to bear his body to the 
grave, in accordance with his expressed desire. 

Our early settlers, however, were no less prudent in pro- 
viding against danger than they were fearless in meeting 
it. To protect themselves against the assaults of savage 
foes, immediately on their arrival here, they constructed 
two stone garrison houses, in which the families took shel- 
ter by night. They were also careful to avoid encroach- 
ment upon the rights of the original occupants of the soil, 
by purchasing from the heir-at-law of John Wheelwright, 



25 

the title to their township, which it was understood he had 
acquired from the Indians by a deed of their sagamores, 
executed nearly a century before, in 1629; a deed, by the 
way, about the genuineness of which there has been some 
controversy of late years, but which at that period was 
believed to be perfectly valid. The first minister here is 
also said on good authority to have successfully employed 
his influence with the French Governor of Canada, with 
whom he had a prior acquaintance, to dissuade the savages 
from any hostile attempts against this settlement. 

The practical sagacity and sterling common sense of the 
founders of Londonderry deserve special mention. No 
enthusiasm for new and brilliant schemes blinded their 
perception, or lifted their reason off her feet. They sub- 
jected everything to the test of cool judgment and experi- 
ence. The unlucky speculator, who was so unwise as to 
enter upon an enterprise without counting the cost, was 
the mark of unbounded ridicule ; and it was no small trial 
of a man's philosophy to be the laughing stock of old 
Londonderry. 

Though their intercourse with society was limited, they 
were shrewd observers of human nature, and had much 
worldly wisdom. The advice of one of the elders to a 
young man who was about journeying into a new country, 
with a considerable amount of silver money, is a good illus- 
tration of this. " "When ye come into a strange hoose" 
said he, " don't set down your saddle-bags as if there was 
eggs in 'em, nor yet fling them down so as to chink the 
coin ; but put them doun indifferently, in a corner where 
you can see 'em, but never look at 'em." Dealers in illu- 
sive corner-lots, and confidence-men, would have earned 
but a precarious livelihood among those alert, long-headed 
Scotch Irishmen. 

Plainness of speech and tenacity of opinion were noted 
characteristics of the early men of Londonderry. The 
mistaken kindness which keeps back half the truth, and 



26 

the conventional usage which falsifies the whole of it, were 
alike unknown in their practice. When the occasion re- 
quired them to unburden their minds, the}- not only meant 
all they said, but they said all they meant. If their opin- 
ion was asked, they scorned to walk daintily round the 
truth, but gave their honest convictions without the sup- 
pression of an iota, however unexpected or unpalatable 
they might be. And even when not asked to express their 
sentiments, they took the liberty to do so, whenever in their 
opinion the occasion demanded it. No stronger illustra- 
tion of this trait can be imagined than one which has come 
to us by tradition, of plain speaking to a clergyman, who 
of all men would be held most sacred from any thing savor- 
ing of reproof, under ordinary circumstances. It happened 
that the good man had passed a long and laborious day in 
parochial visits, and rode up, toward evening, to the house 
of one of his elders. He had, as a matter of course, been 
pressed at every dwelling to partake of the stimulating 
refreshments which were then considered indispensable, 
and, between fatigue and the over-hospitality of his parish- 
ioners, he found it at last not easy to keep himself upright 
in the saddle. The elder's keen eye took in the situation. 
" Wont ye light doun, parson," said he, " and come in and 
get something to eat ; for I perceive ye've had enough to 
drink, already !" 

Our ancestors were anything but impulsive men. They 
had very inflexible opinions, warm preferences and strong 
dislikes, but they arrived at them all, rather through the 
intellect than the feelings. Being accustomed to delibera- 
tion, they were little inclined to alter the views that they 
had fairly adopted Most of the reasons that could be 
urged for an opposite course, they had already examined. 
To the opponent who assailed them with argument, there- 
fore, they were able to produce arguments of equal cogency 
in return ; and if, as sometimes happened, in default of rea- 
sons he resorted to invective, it took little time to convince 



27 

him that there were blows to take as well as blows to give, 
in that branch of dialectics. 

Men called the Londonderry people an obstinate race ; 
but they soon learned to respect their opinions. An anec- 
dote is related of one of them at a later period, but which 
breathes the spirit of the first generation. He had been 
elected to the General Court, and at the close of the ses- 
sion the friends of the presiding officer had prepared the 
usual complimentary resolution for him. The Londonderry 
member, it was well known, differed world-wide from that 
official, in politics and religion, and even had doubts of his 
honesty. His friends, therefore, dreading to encounter the 
public opposition of the outspoken " gentleman from Lon- 
donderry," thought it most prudent to show him the resolu- 
tion in private, before it was offered. It was in the ordinary 
form, to present " the thanks of the assembly to the pre- 
siding officer for the dignity, ability and integrity with 
which he had discharged his duties." Our friend perused 
the paper deliberately, and then remarked : " There is but 
one word in the resolve that I object to : just strike out the 
little word inteegrity and I will vote for the rest, cheerfully." 
It was thought best to expunge the obnoxious word, and so 
the resolution stands recorded to this day. 

Another thing which contributed to the Londonderry 
reputation for obstinacy was the naturally conservative dis- 
position of its people. They did not, it is true, object 
to an improvement because it was new, but if they were 
not satisfied that it was an improvement, the novelty of a 
proposition was a sufficient reason for not accepting it. 
The mere fact that others, and even a majority of the com- 
munity, disagreed with them, weighed nothing in their esti- 
mation. They decided for themselves, and pinned their 
faith upon no man's sleeve. 

It is related that in the celebration of the Lord's Supper 
it was the ancient practice in Londonderry to sit at the 
table. In other places it was found a more convenient 



JtfrWljL fc&Ll*4C*4 



28 
• 
practice for them to remain in the pews. The worthy 
clergyman was desirous of adopting that fashion here, and 
addressed his church upon the suhject, strongly recom- 
mending that course ; but knowing the manner of men he 
had to deal with, he added, that seats at the table would 
still be provided for such as might object to the change. 
Most of the church conformed to the new fashion ; a few 
clung to their old seats, hut one after another of them, in 
a short time, went over to the majority. But one old gen- 
tleman would never yield his assent, and year after year, 
until he went down to his grave, each day of communion, 
in sunshine and in storm, found him sitting at the table, 
solitary and conspicuous, in mute but faithful protest 
against an innovation for which he found no warrant in 
Scripture or tradition. 

Many instances have come down to us of the keen wit of 
the fathers of Londonderry. They had an appreciative eye 
for the ludicrous side of things, an intense relish for 
repartee, and a ready tongue for apt sayings. Many of 
their sallies were highly effective, presenting the whole 
gist of an argument crystalized in a word. So much of 
their point, however, usually depended upon the character 
of the persons, the circumstances of the occasion and the 
very tricks of the tongue which uttered them, that it is not 
easy by repetition to do approximate justice to their force 
and pungency. 

Any delineation of the character of our ancestors would 
be defective, which should omit to mention their independ- 
ence and self-respect. They were not at all inclined to 
rate themselves, nor to allow other people to rate them, 
below their true value. At the same time they had too 
much sagacity and fear of ridicule to put an extravagantly 
high estimate upon themselves, for nothing was more cer- 
tain to bring upon them the sarcasms of their sharp- 
tongued neighbors, than ill-founded pretentions or conceit. 
Any exhibition of vanity became a perpetual source of 



29 

ridicule among them. One self-complacent person, who in 
an evil hour gave utterance to the remark that " if he were 
to have the making of himself over again, he did not see 
where he could introduce any alteration for the better," 
never heard the last of his unfortunate speech, but has 
come down to our time, preserved in it, like a fly imbedded 
in. amber. 

The self appreciation of our fathers, however, degener- 
ated into no ignoble quality. It had a healthy, manly 
tone. It lent them firmness in time of trouble and danger ; 
it gave them freedom of thought and action, and aspira- 
tions for improvement and advancement ; it preserved 
them from all mean and dishonorable courses, as unworthy 
of the high standard they had set up for themselves. They 
would scorn to stab an enemy in the back, but they were 
always ready to meet him face to face ; and what they 
said to you to-day, you might have implicit confidence that 
they would abide by to-morrow. In general, they were no 
great respecters of persons, but their manly spirit would 
not permit them to bear hardly upon the helpless or the 
feeble. Blunt and outspoken to their equals, they could be 
considerate and gentle to their inferiors in strength or 
fortune. The good man who could sturdily reprove his 
minister, when he believed his duty demanded it, would 
have stifled the words on his lips which would have carried 
pain to the heart of a delicate woman, or a neighbor in 
distress. 

Such is a meagre outline of the prominent qualities of 
the class who constituted the early population of this town- 
ship. As we have seen, they were no perfect beings ; they 
had their share of human infirmities. Yet on the whole 
they possessed sterling excellences which far outweighed 
their defects - . Their establishment here was an important 
era in the history of the state and of the country. The 
influence they exerted has been powerful and extensive. 
The qualities, ideas and habits which they introduced at 



30 

that early period, and which have since become so -widely 
diffused throughout the community, have yielded incalcu- 
lable service and benefit. The whole body politic has been 
the gainer, alike in a material, mental and moral point of 
view, by their adoption into the household of America. 

Time would fail me to enumerate the various channels in 
which the Londonderry settlement has contributed to the 
common credit and prosperity. A rapid glance at what 
has been accomplished, immediately by the settlers, and 
those who inherited their blood and qualities, must suffice 
for this occasion. 

For no very long time did the ranks of the original asso- 
ciation here remain unbroken. Our country was then, as 
it is now, a land of changes. One eligible opening after 
another in the inland domain beckoned away little detach- 
ments, to lay the foundations of other settlements. It was 
usually a few families, connected by the ties of consan- 
guinity or friendship, who made up each of these expedi- 
tions ; the sparseness of the population and the impracti- 
cability of frequent communication making the undertaking 
too serious to be encountered without companionship. 
Within the half century succeeding the foundation of the 
township, some ten or twelve little companies had quitted 
its precincts, and spread themselves in various parts of 
southwestern New Hampshire, in Vermont, New York and 
Nova Scotia, each forming the nucleus of a new town, 
which bore a marvelous family likeness to their common 
parent. 

The prejudices with which the Londonderry settlers had 
been at first regarded by the surrounding population had 
by this time yielded to a better knowledge of their true 
character, and the places made vacant by the outgoing 
Scotch Irish were readily filled by incomers of other 
nationalities. 

Subsequently, when communication between different 
quarters of the country had become more frequent and 



31 

easy, the same process of removals and changes was con- 
tinued; not so much by companies, however, as by families 
and individuals. The result at length was, as a matter of 
course, a pretty thorough intermingling of the Scotch Irish 
element with the great body of the population. Inter- 
marriages became common ; and at the present day, though 
the marks of the Londonderry ancestry are especially visi- 
ble in certain localities, yet so widely have the representa- 
tives of the settlers extended themselves, that there is not 
a state or territory, and I might almost say, not a county 
or village, where they have not planted their hearthstones. 

Change of scene, different associations, the advancement 
of civilization, the infusion of new blood, must in the course 
of generations produce a powerful effect in the modifica- 
tion of character ; yet so sturdy and so little plastic was 
the constitution of the early inhabitants of this township, 
that in despite of all these influences, their leading charac- 
teristics crop out to-day, in many cases with startling dis- 
tinctness, in their posterity. The granite of their nature 
seems to require ages of abrasion to wear away the bold 
outlines and round off the salient angles. 

In every generation of their successors which has occu- 
pied the stage since they passed away, there is recognizable 
so uniform a care and regard for religious and educational 
interests, that we cannot hesitate to attribute them to the 
example and teachings of the fathers, and the native in- 
stincts transmitted from them. Among the little offshoots 
of population which gave tone to so many other settlements 
in the last century, the church and the school-house were 
always among the earliest features, and made their appear- 
ance as speedily as the ax and the mill could do their work. 
The historians of other provinces, to which the outgoing 
parties took their way, with one voice bear testimony to 
their solicitude for these privileges, and to their melior- 
ating effect upon the surrounding inhabitants. 

Institutions of learning of a higher class have since 



32 

been opened in many of those places ; and within the limits 
of the old town itself, two seminaries have been endowed 
by the wise liberality of resident sons of the old sires, which 
have long poured forth rich streams to swell the tide of in- 
telligence and virtue of the country. 

I hazard little in saying that it would be impossible to 
point out a class of the population, of equal extent, whose 
weight, so uniformly and for such a period, has been thrown 
on the side of the institutions of Christianity and the cul- 
tivation of learning, as that of the class who derive their 
origin from the Londonderry stock. 

The resolute and intrepid spirit, which resisted in arms 
the hostile religious factions of other days, has become 
little impaired in the passage to our own times. The roll 
of the bold woodsmen who set forth with the gallant Love- 
well on the ill-fated expedition, which in depriving him of 
life gave him immortality in story, bore the names of three 
of the men of Nutfield. At a later period, in the various 
enterprises which were set on foot against the savages, the 
youth of the town girded on the weapons with which their 
fathers had done gallant service beyond the sea-, and 
marched forth into the wilderness under the leadership of 
"Samuel Barr, Andrew Todd, and stout John Goffc, — the 
same John Goffe for whom the adventurous life of the fron- 
tier had such charms, that he used to pray fervently for a 
" long and moderate war" ; not moderate because he had 
any disinclination to hard fighting, but because its mod- 
eration would insure its lasting the longer. The stanch 
and pious partisan never shrank from the dangers of the 
battle-field. 

In the hostilities against the French and Indians, Robert 
Rogers appeared upon the scene, at the head of a battalion 
of rangers, recruited largely from the ranks of his towns- 
men, and won distinction, which was liberally recognized 
by the ministry of Britain ; and John Stark, who led his 
brethren so boldly then, and won immortal renown after- 



33 

ward, by crippling- the power of a hostile army at the most 
critical hour of the Revolutionary contest. George Reid 
fought manfully by his side with a Londonderry corps, at 
Bunker Hill ; and William Gregg pushed the brave boys of 
the township into the thickest of the fray, under his com- 
mand, at Bennington. 

In the war of 1812 a comparatively small proportion of 
the population was called to the field ; yet McNeil and Mil- 
ler proved that the fighting blood of their ancestors ha I 
not become thinned, and wrote their names proudly upon 
the military annals of the country. 

And in the mighty contest from which we have but lately 
emerged, the descendants of the same stalwart sires, from 
the length and breadth of the land, thronged in numbers 
which it is now impossible to estimate, into the ranks of 
the Union's defenders ; some honored with high command, 
many sealing their devotion to the cause of freedom with 
their lives ; all loyal, constant and brave. It may be said 
without exaggeiation that the Scotch Irish blood of Lon- 
donderry has reddened every battle-field over which the 
flag of our country has waved. 

Prudence, industry, sound judgment and sclf-relian 
have been the common characteristics of this descent, at 
all times, and in every variety of circumstances. In the 
long list of those who have risen, by force of these quali- 
ties, to prosperity and eminence, it would he invidious to 
particularize some, while it would be idle to attempt :o 
make mention of all. The catalogue would embrace nami 
from the ranks of the leading men of every department 
and calling ; agriculturists, merchants and manufacturers ; 
professional men and men of letters; conductors of insti 
tutions of learning ; high officers in the state and nation ; — 
in short there is scarce a single position of respectability or 
dignity which the country affords, that would not claim its 
share in the enumeration. 

The march of civilization, while it tends so greatly t > 
3 



34 

elevate and refine humanity, is not without attendant evils 
in its train. Physical and moral deterioration are not un- 
frequently to be discovered, even where the mental faculties 
have become sharpened, if not broadened. Effeminacy is 
born of a life which demands little bodily toil ; and unman* 
liness and insincerity are the common curse of an artificial 
state of society. Yet it cannot with justice be asserted that 
these canker spots have seriously infected the generation to 
whom the blood of ancient Nutficld has descended. The 
titanic shoulders may indeed be less frequent now than 
formerly ; the athlete of the old wrestling ring might per- 
haps find fewer antagonists worthy of his prowess ; the po- 
tato which our fathers presented to the new world may 
sometimes assimilate less kindly with the gastric fluid in 
our time than in the days before man learned by dire ex- 
perience that he had a stomach ; but if we compare the 
statistics of life and health of the two periods, the balance 
will not be found to be all in their favor. Mighty as were 
the thews and sinews of that olden time, the " Boys in 
Blue" of their descendants proved that they were as wiry 
and tough, could march as fast and as far, and could endure 
hardship and exposure as well,, as the Rangers of a century 
ago, or the Covenanters who trod the heaths of Scotland. 

Nor, I apprehend, has there been any greater degeneracy 
in the moral, than in the physical, fiber of the race. Rude 
fashions have been abandoned or modified, and the curt 
speech has been amended to suit more polished ears ; our 
generation maintain their opinions with less ■ of pungent 
comment and flat contradiction, but it is extremely doubt- 
ful if they adhere to them with diminished tenacity. The 
larger vocabulary of this day sanctions the dealing with of- 
fensive things in gentler phraseology, but there is the same 
contempt for shams, and scorn of meanness and falsehood, 
as in the days of simpler language. It will be found that 
the iron hand is there, though it maybe covered with a 
gljve of velvet. 



35 

If the mischiefs which are incident to an older civiliza- 
tion have been fortunately so far avoided, on the other 
hand its full benefits have been experienced. The life of 
perennial toil, unmitigated save by stern duty and coarse 
pleasures, has passed away forever. Comfort, cultivation 
and refinement are seated by the firesides of our more 
favored age. The ingenuity of modern invention ministers 
to our material wants. The works of the great masters of 
literature lie upon our tables. Onr taste for the beautiful in 
art has abundant means of gratification. Commerce pours 
into our laps the productions of the four quarters of the 
globe. Travel invites us to wider scenes, and a more varied 
and complete experience. Philosophy opens for our inspec- 
tion the arcana of nature. A wealth of appliances sur- 
rounds us, for the supply of all our needs of body and 
spirit ; for the cultivation and development of every faculty, 
for the gratification of the most elevated tastes and .the 
highest aspirations of our nature. It is not too much to 
say, that these high privileges have neither been under- 
valued nor unimproved by the present generation of repre- 
sentatives of the Londonderry settlers. Elegance has be- 
come ingrafted upon native force ; polish superadded to 
acumen ; refinement to rough manliness. It is matter of 
sincere congratulation that so much of the sound ore of 
character has been retained, unmixed with dross, and well 
fitted to be moulded into the graceful forms of a higher 
civilization. 

I have thus hastily and imperfectly sketched some of the 
changes which a century and a half have brought about in 
the character and condition of those who owe their origin 
to this historic place. Who will venture to foretell how 
much is to be added to the story, when, after the lapse of 
five more generations, our successors shall assemble here 
to pay their anniversary honors to the ancestral home ! 

Our progenitors here would have been struck dumb with 
amazement if they could have lifted the veil of the future 



86 

and foreseen the stupendous revolution that was to be^ 
wrought in their adopted land : — the rescue of a continent 
from the hand of nature, and peopling it with teeming mil- 
lions ; the experiment of a vast republican government 
successfully carried into execution ; the vapor of water 
made the great moving power of the industrial world ; 
and the very lightnings broken to harness as carriers of 
dispatches ! How would their eyes have distended with 
wonder at the view of a road of iron spanning the hills 
and valleys over which they bore upon their shoulders 
their whole worldly goods from the ancient landing place 
at Haverhill; and of a populous city taking its rise from 
the river falls to which the friendly hand of the Indian 
pointed them the way, to take the fish which eked out their 
scanty winter's subsistence, — a city whose looms each day 
produce a greater quantity of cloth than their whole female 
industry could have woven in a generation ! 

Is there any reason to doubt that the coming century 
and a half arc to usher in changes which would he as 
startling to us as those I have mentioned would have been 
to them? Have we any ground for believing the resources 
of nature have been so far explored, and the powers of art 
so exhausted, that the future is any less full of promise 
than was the past? On the contrary, it cannot be supposed 
that our age is beyond the threshold of improvement. 
Every day furnishes new problems for solution in the phe- 
nomena of nature and the domains of industrial, political 
and social science. The spirit of discovery was never 
more active. Regions of the globe hitherto unexplored arc 
day by day opening to the view like the outlines of moun- 
tains through a vanishing mist. The powers of chemistry 
are unsealing the book in which the secret of nature's 
internal forces are written. Inventive enterprise is elabor- 
ating new methods and combinations to facilitate the oper- 
ations of life and give ease and relief to physical humanity; 
while the political and moral requirements of the age arc 



37 

engaging the attention of the profoundest thinkers and 
most earnest philanthropists of the world. 

Not unreasonably, therefore, may we look for improve- 
ments in coming time in no way inferior to those of the 
past. The next three half centuries are destined to behold 
a prodigious increase in the population, the resources and 
the achievements of science and art, in our country. What 
further alterations are to befall the home of our fathers, or 
what triumphs may be in store in civil or military life, for 
the coming man of the lineage of Londonderry, — it is for- 
bidden for us to know. But from the reliance we justly 
repose upon the energy, sense and honesty of the Scotch 
Irish character, as developed in the period over which we 
have glanced, we have high faith that in every stage of 
progress that race shall creditably bear its part, and shall 
not fail to leave its impress upon each coming generation. 



88 



ADDRESS. 

BY HON. HORACE GREELEY. 

Mr. Gijeeley, being introduced by the President as a 
native of New Hampshire, sprung from a Londonderry 
stock, who was widely known and honored, responded as 
follows : 

Mr. President and Friends : 

Though we are of diverse origin, and have gathered 
from many states, yet I trust we shall cordially agree to 
devote this festival to the memory of that Scotch Irish race 
who first settled this town of Londonderry, and gave it the 
character it still proudly maintains. The old township has 
been cut up into several ; old landmarks have disappeared ; 
old fashions have changed ; new institutions have changed 
old habits and softened rugged peculiarities; but the Scotch 
Irish people remain ; their genius lights up most of the 
faces now looking into mine. Let me speak, then, for the 
few minutes in which I may venture to claim your atten- 
tion, of this race and its living influence upon our country 
and its people. 

The influence of a race is not measured by the area of 
the country it inhabits. Greece and Palestine are but 
specks on the surface of our globe, yet they have exerted 
a far greater influence upon human progress and well- 
being than the vast empires of China and Persia, in either 
of which they might both be lost. Scotland is another 
speck, not nearly so large as Arkansas, with a population 
never yet reaching four millions ; yet what poets, philoso- 
phers, historians, have been proud to claim her as their 
native land ! Like other small countries, her sons have 
ma le h.:r gicat. 



39 

The Scotch Irish were eminently men of conviction. 
They saw clearly ; they reasoned fearlessly ; and they did 
not hesitate to follow wherever truth led the way. Migra- 
tion to Ireland cracked the shell of their insular prejudice : 
removal thence to America completed their emancipate - 
Liberalized by crossing a strait, the passage of a stormy 
ocean made them freemen. 

The Scotch, whether at home or abroad, were an intel- 
lectual, an inquiring, and a Bible-reading people. Whether 
Bible-reading made them such early zealous Protestants, 
or Protestantism opened to them the Bible, they have been 
eminently familiar with the Good Book for three centuries. 
Their knowledge of its contents kindled and has kept alive 
in their breasts the sacred fire of Liberty. No haughty 
prelacy can domineer over a Bible-loving, Bible-reading 
people ; and the spirit of John Knox lives and reigns to- 
day in the hearts of the Scotch Irish in America. 

Hence their early and 'steadfast devotion to Common 
Schools. Their Christianity and their love of Liberty alike 
impelled them to educate their children, including those of 
the humblest and least esteemed. A meeting-house was 
the first building not of logs erected in this township; but a 
school-house soon followed ; and the children of London- 
derry have ever been blest with excellent common schools. 
And the good they enjoyed they were eVev eager to impart 
and diffuse. I presume more teachers now living trace 
their descent from the Scotch Irish pioneers of Londonderry 
than to an equal number anywhere else. New England 
is to-day teaching our country. If you should visit all 
the school-houses in California you would find two-thirds 
of them under the sway of teachers from New England, 
and a sixth of these tracing their lineage to Londonderry, 
whose earlv devotion to the Bible and to common schools 
is still cherished by her children. 

In New York we feel, as in Londonderry you do not, the 
pressure of Old- World prelacy in determined, though as yet 



40 

quiet, efforts to break up our common schools into theo- 
logical fragments, each under the control of the hierarchy 
of some sect or denomination. I deprecate the change 
thus sought as perilous, if not fatal, to republican institu- 
tions. When the time shall have come for apportioning 
our children to Catholic, Orthodox, Liberal, Baptist, Meth- 
odist and Unitarian primary schools, I shall apprehend 
that the last sands of the Republic are nearly run. When 
our common schools shall have perished we may still have 
a country ; but it will not bo the land of Liberty and 
Equality for which our fathers toiled and suffered, and 
poured out their blood. 

Let me not seem .to speak as one filled with apprehen- 
sion. Despite its trials and perils, the Republic will live 
and not die. It has cost too much — it is worth too 
much — to be tamely surrendered. In one of the many 
dark hours of our late terrible struggle, a doubting friend 
asked me, "Do you not consider Popular Rule about played 
out here?" "No," I replied. " We have Common Schools 
and Trial by Jury left, and we can afford to fight fifty years 
longer rather than give them up." 

Burke said the chief end of government was twelve hon- 
est, intelligent men in the jury-box to decide all contested 
issues. In the same spirit I hold that, so long as we can 
maintain common schools free to all children, and lie tol- 
erably sure of twelve fair men in the jury-box when issues 
of fact are to be tried, so long will our country remain a 
lighthouse to the nations and a star of hope to the op- 
pressed throughout the world. And so long, I trust, will 
our people gather on anniversaries like this, to honor the 
virtues of their ancestors and hand down the fame of their 
grand achievements to their latest posterity. 



41 



A D I) R ESS. 

by hon. james w . p a t t e r son. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I had supposed until a late hour that I should be re- 
strained from participating - in the agreeable festivities of 
this day by engrossing public duties elsewhere. Still I felt 
that it would be a personal loss and a sort of breach of 
loyalty to my ancestors not to come ; and so. by dint of 
effort, I am unexpectedly present. 

I am not here to speak, however, hut to enjoy, and have 
awakened in my own mind the memories and inspirations 
of the past. I come to look into your strong Scotch Irish 
faces, in which one seems to see the force and meaning 
of those centuries of earnest and terrible struggle through 
which our fathers passed. 1 am not quite sure I ought to 
respond to your call at all, for my status here is very well 
described in what that splendid New Hampshire soldier, 
General J. G. Foster, once said to me of a brother officer. 
Happening to meet him in a street-car soon after one of 
the reverses of the war, our conversation turned upon the 
unfortunate conduct, during the battle, of one of our dis- 
tinguished commanders. 1 said I believed he was a native 
of New Hampshire. " No," said the General ; " a native 
of the South." " But 1 had the impression," I replied, 
"that he was born in our own state. " yes!" responded 
the General ; " he was accidentally born there, but still he 
is a native of the South." 

My great grandparents settled in Londonderry. Both of 
my grandmothers, and my grandfather on my father's side, 
were children of the town ; but ray grandfather having re- 
moved to a beautiful town which nestles in the bosom of 



42 

the Contoocook, I and my father were born there. Never- 
theless, I feel that somehow I am, as the General would 
say, " a native " of this town, and have a right to celebrate 
with you. 

The Scotch Irish settlers of this country were a some- 
what peculiar people, and unmistakable traces of the orig- 
inal traits survive in their children. The warp of their 
character was Scotch, and the threads were as close 
twisted and strong as hemp ; but a hard and varied ex- 
perience under changing governments and fortunes had 
filled in the web with a texture of Celtic die and pattern. 
They had the stern grip and endurance of the old cove- 
nanter, mellowed by something of the flexibility of the 
merry-making Irishman. They were equally prepared to 
defend a natural right or a point in theology, to " the last 
of their kith and their kin," or to make the welkin ring 
till morning with their broad but pungent wit. 

The distinguished gentleman who has preceded me 
spoke of the influence of races upon history. It occurs to 
me to reverse the text, and say a few words upon the influ- 
ence of history on races. The geologist evolves the un- 
written history of nature from the fossils, the ripple marks, 
the distortions and composition of the earth's crust; the 
naturalist sees the apple-blossom in a section of its fruit, 
and counts the years of a tree by its rings. So, I appre- 
hend, the student of human nature may read the history of 
a people in their character. 

Mental and physical qualities are transmitted, but these 
are modified and special peculiarities created by the con- 
ditions and events of life. The strength or weakness of 
the father is likely to be the inheritance of the child, and 
the remembrance of a great ancestral achievement will 
ennoble a whole family. 

The law holds good of races. National health is an ele- 
ment of national strength. But the forces which more than 
all others impart greatness to a people are purely moral, 



43 

The earnest and lofty enthusiasm inspired by heroic deeds 
and high endeavor in those whose renown they inherit, the 
songs they sing, the works of art they look upon, the labor 
of their hands, and, above all, the faith in which they wor- 
ship, — determine their distinctive characteristics. The 
songs of ^Eschylus and Homer and the glory of Marathon 
and Thermopylae were the seeds of fame which ripened 
in the peerless intellectual products and military achieve- 
ments of the age of Pericles. The English at Waterloo 
could not break in the tempestuous charge of Ney, for they 
had the integrity of English history to maintain. It was 
not simply the responsibilities of that day, but of all the 
past of their people, which pressed upon and held them 
like ranks of iron against the impetuous valor of France. 
Races of men become intellectual and strong by a sort of 
mental concretion of the best things in their national life. 
The peculiarities of the race to which we belong took their 
rise at different epochs in their career. One familiar with 
the record of our ancestors could almost trace in your faces 
to-day the love of liberty and the enduring faith which 
resisted the dragoons of Graham of Claverhouse, and en- 
dured the horrors of the siege of Deny. 

The substratum of the Scotch Irish character was laid 
in the stern and stormy life of early Scotch history; but its 
distinctive traits were brought out and confirmed in the 
long and bloody conflicts which they waged in Ireland 
against ecclesiastical and royal tyranny, after their emigra- 
tion in 1612. Profound convictions, an inflexible will, and 
strong sensibilities, are the natural inheritance of our peo- 
ple. They have been transmitted from sires into whose 
mental constitution they were wrought by the bitter experi- 
ence of centuries. Oar fathers, when at last constrained, 
by the hardships laid upon them by a kiifg whose throne 
they had saved, to leave the homes they had reluctantly 
adopted, and which they had redeemed from desolation 
by toil, and defended with a heroism unsurpassed in the 



44 

annals of war, brought with tlicin to our shores those 
qualities which have made their descendants a peculiar 
people. The story of sufferings endured in the defence of 

-civil ami religious rights, handed down from father to sun, 
had imparted an unusual energy and obstinacy to their 
love of liberty and fair play. Patience under oppression 
they had learned to regard as a stain upon the honor of 
manhood, and had been taught by experience that arbi- 
trary power must he repelled in its first approaches. Their 
rights and their faith they held as a trust to he transmitted 
without taint or diminution, and hence they battled as they 
worshiped, from a sense of duty. They sprang to arms at 
('ape Breton and Crown Point. They fought with Pres- 
cott at the point of peril and honor at Bunker Hill, and 
triumphed with Stark at Bennington. Your heroic dead 
lie buried in every battle-field where our fathers first res- 
cued Liberty from the grasp of Tyranny, or their children 
have since maintained it against the assaults of Treason. 
Ileid, Stark, Rogers, McClary, and a few other bright 
names upon the early military record of Londonderry, 
reached a high historic fame ; but not less pure was the 
devotion, nor less exalted the heroism, with which their 
townsmen in the ranks, gave themselves to the cause of 
their country. To-day let us pay a full and heartfelt trib- 
ute of gratitude and honor to those who hazarded life in 
the great cause without the hope of reward. 

But our fathers were as apt in the pursuits of peace as 
in the arts of war. Their industry aird enterprise not only 
transformed the wilderness into a garden, but made even 
the sands of old Derryfield to flow with milk and honey. 
The linens woven by our fair grandmothers acquired a 
national reputation, and the Derry Fair was as famous, in its 
day, as the Olympic Games, and, I conclude, bore a striking 
resemblance to that classic fighting-ground. The Fair was 
the annual exchange of an extensive agricultural district, 
and generally closed with horse-racing, and such manlv 



45 

sports as are common to the athletic races. There is a 
mythical tradition that our pious ancestors sometimes lie- 
came a little demoralized by the convivialities of the closing 
day. But among the numerous gifts of our fathers, I sus- 
pect the art of speech-making was their special forte. 
Town meeting day seemed foreordained for the display 
of their forensic powers. It was there that the whole list 
of orators entered the arena, and logic, pathos, sarcasm 
and wit fell upon the appreciating assembly, as brilliant 
and startling as a meteoric shower. Some profane icono- 
clast has even dared to enter this grave forum of the peo- 
ple, and bring forth the' report that upon a certain occasion, 
near the close of the deliberations, a fiery debate having 
sprung up unexpectedly, a favorite orator who had some 
time before subsided into silence in a "pew" behind the 
door, having at last caught the inspiration of the moment, 
essayed to fulminate over the wrangling assembly ; but, 
after attempting several tirhes to lift himself to his feet 
by the help of the railing, and having been as often baffled 
by an unaccountable weakness in his joints, he at last set- 
tled back into his seat, and with a look of despair mum- 
bled out with an inimitable brogue, "There you are — 
gabble, gabble, gabble, and common-sensey maun sit a hin 
the door!" 

These traditionary anecdotes are doubtless exaggera- 
tions, nevertheless it is true that our fathers in their 
sojourn in Ireland developed an unusual readiness and pun- 
gency of wit, and imbibed a love of fun and frolic which 
greatly mellowed the austerity of their original Scotch 
characters. But all this was superficial. Beneath lay the 
substance of a generous, comprehensive, thoughtful nature, 
which has given evidence of its power in each generation 
of their children, in the field, the pulpit, and the councils 
of the nation. 

The family names of old Londonderry were household 



46 

words to me in boyhood, and if to-day I had met one of 
you alone upon the road, I am not sure I should not have 
asked how Aleck was getting on with the wound received 
at Bennington, and if Molly had worked up all her flax for 
the fair. 

But the good old times have passed, and they who made 
their memory precious have gone with them. Only their 
graves on yonder hill are with us to-day. Nay, their words, 
their deeds, and the sanctity of their lives are here, and it 
may he that their spirits in the still air above us are 
listening to our words of homage, and feel the throb of 
our yearning love. Let us emulate and transmit their 
virtues, that the children in all their generations may be 
worthy of their fathers. 



[At the conclusion of Senator Patterson's remarks, an intermission for 
dinner took place.] 




**£"■ 







47 



ADDRESS. 

BY SAMUEL H. TAYLOR, LL. D. 

Ms. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

It was said of old, " Who can follow the king?" But 
I may justly ask, Who can follow two kings* and the en- 
enchanting music to which we have just listened ? 

One of the most valuable lessons which we are to learn 
to-day is to refresh our memories with the character of the 
early settlers of this town, and the influences which led 
them to leave their distant home beyond the broad Atlan- 
tic, to meet the hardships and privations of a long voyage, 
and to fix their dwelling in this uncultivated and trackless 
spot. It is this, more than any other truth, that we need 
to learn on this anniversary. 

Nearly every nation, both in ancient and modern times, 
has established colonies or settlements in other lands. The 
Phoenicians had their colonies, the Greeks theirs, the 
Romans theirs; so, too, the Dutch, the Spanish, the French, 
the English. Most of these colonies were founded to im- 
prove the material condition of the people at home, or of 
the colonists themselves. Sometimes the end in view was 
to draw off the over-crowded population at home ; some- 
times to strengthen and protect the government, or to ex- 
tend dominion, or because of the barrenness of the mother 
country ; sometimes it was to place beyond the power of 
doing harm the restless and turbulent leaders and factions 
at home ; or it was for commercial enterprise ; or to gather 
gold from the rich mines of the country. Others still 

formed colonies remote from home to escape the oppres- 

» 

*Hon. Horace Greeley, of New York, and Senator Patterson, of New 
Hampshire, had spoken before. 



48 

sion of a dominant political party. Most foreign settle- 
ments originated in some of these causes. 

But, Mr. President, the colony whose hundred and fifti- 
eth anniversary has gathered us here to-day is to he traced 
to no such motive. The founders^ of it were not driven 
out by an overstocked population, nor by want of produc- 
tive land at home ; nor did they, like the colonists of New 
Spiith Wales, "leave their country for their country's 
good;" they were not adventurers in quest of wealth ; 
nor did they seek to enlarge the domain or power of the 
mother country, nor to change the form of civil govern- 
ment. They came here in defence of a principle, one of 
the strongest and noblest that can animate the human 
breast — they came to escape bondage to an arbitrary and 
oppressive religious rule, and to secure to themselves and 
their posterity freedom to worship God according to their 
own views of right. In this singleness of aim, in this ex- 
alted purpose, the early settlers of New England stand 
almost alone; and the founders of this colony were not a 
whit behind the very chiefest in this respect. 

They had a sinewy arm, great vigor, and power of en- 
durance ; but this was not all they brought: They had a 
keen conviction of right, and no flattery, no threats, no 
hardships or privations, could seduce them from it. Life 
to them was of little account if the true spirit of manliness 
and independence was crushed out by the strong arm of an 
oppressive rule. They had less culture and fewer graces 
than their descendants of the present day ; their habits 
and usages may not have been conformed to our refined 
standards ; but they would put us all to the blush in what 
they were ready to do and to sutler for the sake of the 
truth and right. The impelling purpose which brought 
them here never abated its force ; the howling tempest and 
the raging waves did not weaken it ; 

"Amid the storm th?y sany," 



49 

for they trusted in God, " who holds the winds in his fists, 
and who binds the waters in a garment." 

Look at them at any point in their struggles to attain 
their object, and you feel that their purpose has such strong 
hold of them that no obstacles, within the range of human 
power to overcome, can defeat it. They part with all their 
effects in their native land ; they leave behind cherished 
objects of affection ; turning their eyes trustfully to heaven, 
they commit themselves to the deep which separates them 
from their land of promise ; they come to these shores 
among strangers. Most of the little band which founded 
this settlement spend a dreary winter in the harbor near 
Portland, Me., in great destitution — most of them on ship- 
board — their vessel frozen up in the ice, and their want 
relieved only by the grant of a hundred bushels of meal by 
the Legislature of Massachusetts, for the poor Iris 7 , / Then, 
when the spring released their ice-bound vessel, they 
changed their course backward, and groped their way up 
the Merrimack river to Haverhill, and from thence, through 
a trackless wilderness, to this place. In all this long, 
weary, anxious course, do we hear any misgiving, any 
faintheartedness, any disposition to turn back ? That great 
purpose that was ever beating in their breasts sustained 
them at every step. 

The heroic character and the high principles of these 
settlors have had an important influence on their posterity. 
Their influence lives to-day, not only in the town, but in 
the numerous colonies which have gone out from it, and in 
the hearts of their descendants all over the land. Had 
the character of the first settlers been of a different type, — 
had they been mere adventurers, like those who settled 
South America or Mexico, searching only for gold or com- 
mercial advantages ; or even like those who established 
themselves at Jamestown, in Virginia, — our native town 
would have had a very different history. We should have 
looked in vain for the virtues which have distinguished so 



c 







many of its inhabitants ; nor could we have pointed with 
pride, as we now do, to the many eminent men who have 
sprung from such ancestry. 

Our great duty to-day, then, is to remember the high 
character of our ancestors, and to give thanks to Almighty 
Crod that he put it into the hearts of such men to plant 
this colony. We have another duty to-day : Let us in- 
quire whether the virtues of those whose services we com- 
memorate are alive in our breasts ; whether they animate 
us, as they did them, to the same high and holy purposes. 
Let the same principles which prompted them to do, and to 
dare, and to suffer so much for themselves and for us, 
never lose their force in the hearts of their descendants. 

We stand to-day within sight of the long resting-place of 
most of the early settlers of this town. How would it 
cheer our hearts could they be present and mingle with us 
on this joyous occasion — a little band of sixteen families 
on one side, and this vast multitude on the other ! With 
what interest would we point them to the wonderful 
changes that have taken place in a century and a half, 
many of them the results of their small beginnings: The 
convenient highways stretching in every direction ; these 
well-cultivated and productive fields ; the neat, attractive 
and comfortable dwellings; the school-houses — the nurs- 
eries of intelligence — dotting every section of the town ; 
these academies, the seats of science and literature ; these 
churches, in which on every Sabbath day the same great 
truths are proclaimed that were so precious to them ; the 
iron road that sweeps along its burdens swifter than the 
eagle's flight; and these wires, which flash their messages 
with a rapidity equaled only by the lightning ! 

In view of such changes and such results, with what 
emphasis may we all exclaim : Other men have labored, 
and we have entered into their labors ! 



51 



A D D II E S S . 

BY HON. E. H. DERBY. 

It is pleasant to revisit the scenes of our boyhood ; to 
breathe again the air of these hills ; to stand again with 
the M'Gregor on his native heath ; to look down upon the 
amphitheatre of Beaver lake ; to cross again the pleasant 
valley of West Running brook, where the first settlers built 
their cabins ; to survey again, over the Merrimack, as they 
did, the panorama of mountains, from the Ascutney at the 
north to the Wachusett at the south, with the Monadnock 
towering over them, the sole monarch of southern New 
Hampshire, if we except the ladies. 

" And they crowned him long ago, 
On his throne of rocks, 
With his robe of clouds, 
And his diadem of snow." 

Upon yonder hills my father fed his sheep, the first 
large flock from Spain, and here, in 1819, at the close of a 
century from the settlement of Nuffield, I participated in 
the celebration, walked in the procession, and recited my 
catechism to the devout and learned Mr. Parker, whose 
precise manner and religious aspect I shall never forget ; 
and here I took by the hand men who had held converse 
with the first settlers, and as I read " Waverly," " Guy 
Mannering," " Rob Roy," and "The Heart of Mid Lothian," 
as they fell from the press, I recognized here the garb, dia- 
lect and spirit which the greatest Scott of Scotland, has so 
vividly portrayed. 

This place, once a part of Nuffield, was colonized in 
1719 by men of the Presbyterian faith. Although born in 
Ireland, they were genuine Scotchmen, and brought noth- 



52 

ing from Ireland, unless it be the buoyant spirit and hilarity 
with which they faced the hardships of the forest. They 
were the church militant, stripped of its asperity. 

The province of Ulster had been wasted by war and 
forfeited to the crown. King James had granted it to the 
great guilds of London, and they colonized it with tenants 
from the opposite coast of Scotland, — men who had fought 
for kirk and covenant in Argyleshire. This was the sec- 
ond colony of Scotland. It had begun with a colony 
planted at Darien, by Patterson, who founded the Bank of 
England and was the apostle of free trade, who planned 
the ship canal we are yet to realize, — a colony which fell 
under the jealousy of Spain and England. The second 
colony was more successful. It reclaimed the north of 
Ireland, felled the forests, built up towns and villages, 
established schools, planted gardens and orchards, reared 
water-mills and introduced the manufacture of flax, so 
that the traveller who passes from Leinster to Ulster 
sees at once the difference ; and the great city of Belfast, 
the centre of the linen trade, stands to-day as a monu- 
ment of the Scotch Irish. From such a colony came the 
settlers of Nuffield. 

The present year will commemorate five important 
events : The birth of Napoleon, a century since ; the open- 
ing of the Pacific railway ; the completion of the Suez 
canal ; the invention of the steam engine, in 1700, and the 
settlement of the Scotch Irish in America. The first event 
has shaken states to their centre and given new laws to 
Europe. The second has united two oceans and hound 
states together with bands of iron. The third has reversed 
the course of Yasco dc Gama and opened a new route to 
the Orient. The fourth has given to man the mastery 
over nature. The fifth is as important to America as the 
landing of the Puritans at Plymouth, for the historian Ban- 
croft and the " Edinburgh Review," in its last number, 
agree that the Scotch Irish did more for civil and religious 



53 



freedom, more to sever the ties that bound the colonies to 
England, more to establish our independence, than the 
Pilgrim Fathers. 

When the Stuarts undertook to depose the constitutional 
king, William of Orange, and invaded the British Isles, 
thirty thousand men were held at bay for four months by a 
few Scotch colonists assembled in the little city of Derry, 
under their pastor, George Walker. They endured with 
him the extremities of famine, and sent back the royal 
army with the loss of eight thousand men, disheartened 
and demoralized, to fight the losing battle of the Boyne, 
in which the men of Derry fought with King William for 
civil and religious freedom. 

That battle gave to England peace and prosperity, and 
secured the ascendency of the Protestant faith ; but after 
that battle England was alike ungrateful and unjust to the 
champions of freedom. They were required to conform to 
the church of England, and by one infamous edict ten of 
the aldermen and twenty of the burgesses of Derry were 
disfranchised. " The Primate Boulter would have chained 
them to the soil as slaves." The Scotch colonists 'loved 
not the mitre or rochet of England. They felt that their 
services were not requited. They left behind them the 
bishop's palace and the cathedral, whose spires rose two 
hundred and thirty feet above the heights of Derry ; they 
passed Diamond Square, the site where now stands the 
statue of George Walker ; they passed the college which 
John Gwinn, in emulation of the Pinkertons, has en- 
dowed with forty thousand pounds, and embarked in the 
noble harbor of Loch Foyle, or possibly at Belfast, in some 
ancient and slow brigantine, for a voyage to the wilds of 
America. They found no fast steamer to bear them in a 
week across the deep ; no railway car to bring them hero 
in two hours from the coast ; no town, county or state 
road, but, following the blazed path afoot, they ford or 
ferry across the Merrimack, and encamp in the trackless 



54 

forest; and here (hey rear their cabins, their kirk, and 
their academy, like Douglas of yore, their great prototype, 
who, as the poet tells us, was 

" More pleased that in n barbarous age 
He gave fair Scotia Virgil's page, 
Than that beneath his sway he held 
The Bishopric of fair Dunkeld." 

Their bishop's palace was a log cabin ; their cathedral, 
the overarching oaks and hemlocks. But the forest bowed 
before them ; they increased and multiplied ; they intro- 
duced the culture of the flax, the potato and barley, and 
the manufacture of linen ; the lawns around their houses 
were whitened with drapery ; their currency was notes 
payable in spinning wheels ; and here they trained skilled 
operatives for the great water-falls of the Merrimack, in its 
course around Derry, from Manchester, by Nashua, Lowell 
and Lawrence, to Haverhill ; and here the Pinkertons en- 
dowed both kirks and academy; and, if tradition may be 
trusted, even their clergy introduced musical instruments 
into New Hampshire. I do not refer to the ear-piercing 
fife alone, or the spirit-stirring drum, whose "toot" so 
engrossed the ear of the martial Matthew Clark, when pre- 
siding at the Session, that he could do no business, — I allude 
to a stringed instrument of music. The pastor of whom the 
tale is told had served as a chaplain in the army, and while 
in camp had learned to play on the violin. He brought 
one to America — doubtless at the bottom of his chest — 
and in his log cabin, in the dreary winter nights, found 
solace in its music. But, late one night, an elder heard the 
" linked sweetness long drawn out," and peeping through 
the crevice of the cabin, like the elders who watched 
Susanna, descried his pastor in the very act of drawing the 
bow, and reported him to the Session ; and the elders de- 
creed that he should " hang up the fiddle and the bow " 
for three successive Sundays, in front of the pulpit. And 
this, I presume, was the first display of stringed instru- 
ments of music in New Hampshire. Derry must not, 



55 

therefore, he forgotten at the great Musical Festival, for 
which Mr. Gilmore is rearing a structure that reminds us 
of the Coliseum. 

The colonists soon occupied the whole of Nutfield, and 
sent out colonies to Peterborough and Hillsborough, to 
Cherry Valley, Michigan, Nova Scotia and the Pacific. 
They sent forth " men who their duties knew, and knew 
their rights as well; and knowing, dared maintain,"— to 
make mayors of cities, clergymen, presidents of colleges, 
professors, judges, representatives and senators in congress, 
lieutenant-governors and governors of states,— Morrisons, 
M'Gregors, M'Keans, Duncans, Greggs, Bells, Pattersons 
and Dinsmores, with many other distinguished names. 
They sent the indomitable Rogers and his battalion to the 
French war, whose slide is still traced by the tourist on the 
shore of Lake Horicon, and whose strength was evinced on 
Hounslow Heath, at a later period, where he drew a high- 
wayman from his horse through the coach window, and took 
him prisoner into London. It sent, also, Colonel Matthew 
Thornton, who signed the Declaration of Independence, and 
many bravo men, to Louisburg. It gave to the war of the 
Revolution Stark, Reid, Adams and Burnham— generals 
and colonels — and a host of others. At Bunker's Hill the 
Nutfield regiments of Stark and Reid were the best disci- 
plined troops of the army, and held the post of danger on 
the flank, and with perfect order covered the retreat. At 
Bennington, when Burgoyne would have severed the Union 
and left New England out in the cold, led by the gallant 
Stark, they captured the vanguard of the British army. 
They crossed the Delaware on that dark and stormy night, 
and stood by Washington until the last, at Yorktown ; 
while at King's Mountain another Scotch colony from Ten- 
nessee turned the tide of battle and began the redemption 
of the South. Nor were the descendants of the colonists 
wanting in the last war with England. Colonel Miller, 
whose response of " I'll try, sir," is famous in story, and 



56 

Colonel McNeil sustained the fame of their ancestors ; 
and a few months since:, General Thorn, of the regular 
army, and his brave associates well represented the men 
of Nuffield in the war against secession. 

As I paused this morn at Horse Hill, and saw the 
Veterans of Manchester and a procession a mile long pass 
me on their way to the pavilion, it seemed to me as if the 
Continentals were marching down from yonder cemetery 
that crowns the heights, to greet their progeny. 

" O ! for a blast of that dread horn, 
On Font Arabian echoes borne," 

which swept across Prance, to summon here the spirfts of 
our dead from every battle-field on which liberty was en- 
dangered. 1 would present to them their descendants and 
their country here, 

" Where honor comes, a pilgrim gray, 
To deck the sod that wraps their clay." 

I would say to them : Behold your progeny ! You have not 
fought or died in vain. Look at your country, not a mere 
home in the forest, a cluster of towns, a county, a state, — 
but a constellation of states, overspreading a continent, 
under one flag and one constitution, extending, or soon to 
stretch, from the frozen north to the orange groves of the 
south, and from ocean to ocean ; a people grown from 
half a million, when you landed, to forty millions ! And 
what will their number be when another century and a half 
have elapsed ! 

If we may not summon around you the spirits of the 
dead you meet here to honor, let us draw inspiration from 
their ashes. The ashes of Wickliffe, thrown into the Severn 
or some other English river, scattered truth around the 
world. The charred bones and crisped tresses of the vic- 
tims of Torquemada sent forth, a few weeks since, a tongue 
of flame which gave religious freedom to Spain. May the 
ashes of our dead be as animating as their lives to our 
common country. 



[The following poem was read by Hon. James W. Patterson.] 

POEM. 

BY MAUI VN DOUGLAS. 

Fresh leaves glisten in the sun, 
And the air is soft and clear ; 
'T is the spring-tide of the year 

Of our Lord 
Seventeen hundred thirty-one. 
'T is the robin's wedding-time, 
And a breath of plum and cherry 
Makes the air of Londonderry 
Sweet as Eden in its prime. 

On the road the shadow falls 

Of the Reverend Matthew Clark * 

Man of prayer and man of mark, 

Out to-day, 
Making some parochial calls. 
Keeper of the village fold, 
Seventy years he 's seen already ; 
Still las step is firm and steady, 
And his eye is keen and bold. 

Neither wrong nor vice he spares; 

Not alone the pastoral crook, 

But the smooth stones from the brook, 

Close at hand, 
And the ready sling he bears ; 
And, if any go astray, 
lie is not afraid to use them ; — 
Better wound his flock than lose them, 
Blindly wandering away. 

* Rev. Matthew Clark was the second minister of Londonderry. 



58 

Hopeful for the days to be, 
Forward all his dreams are cast, 
But his memories of the past, 

One and all, 
Lie in lands beyond the sea ; 
For, but lately, from abroad, 
To light up the Derry weavers, 
Honest men and true believers, 
Came this " candle of the Lord." 

♦ 

Matching well his dauntless mien, 
On his temple is a scar, 
(You can see it just as far 

As his wig 
Or the man himself is seen,) 
Bravely won, when, Heaven's own liege, 
'Mid the groans of starved and dying, 
He had fought, on God relying, 
In the Londonderry siege. 

Still that memory remains ; 
And a sound of martial strife, 
Beat of drum or shriek of fife, 

Makes the blood 
Thrill and tingle in his veins ; 
And his heart grows young again, 
Thinking of the vanished glory 
Of those days renowned in story, 
Days of triumph and of pain, 

When, his cold breath on each brow, 
Brave men, without doubt or dread, 
Looked in Death's stern eyes and said, 
Gravely firm, 
" We are stronger far than thou ! 
Friends of Truth and foes of Guilt, 
Wounded, starving, fainting, breathless, 
We are God's, and God is deathless — 
Take us, leave us, as thou wilt ! " 



59 

But, to-day, the air of spring 
Breathes around a peaceful calm, 
And his thoughts are like a psalm, 

" Praise to God ! " 
Sung by Israel's shepherd king ; 
And around him Fancy paints 
Here the budding rod of Aaron, 
TIi ere the mystic rose of Sharon 
And the lilies of the saints. 

And the wind that softly steals 
From the orchard trees in bloom, 
Laden with their sweet perfume, 

Seems to him 
Blowing from celestial fields. 
Priest and teacher of the town, 
Long as stands good Londonderry, 
With its stories sad and merry, 
Shall thy name be handed down 
As a man of prayer and mark. 
Grave and reverend Matthew Clark 




Camo to Londonderry in 1729. He supplied the desk, 
made vacant that year by the death of Rev. James Mac- 
Gregor, four years, until the settlement of Rev. Thomas 
Thompson in 1733. He lived but six years after lie came 
to town, dying Jan. 25, 1735 ; and though never installed 
over the church, more is known of him by the people of 
the present day than is known of two of his successors — 
Mr. Thompson and Mr. Davidson— though, their united 
pastorates amounted to fifty-five years. 



GO 



THE MEMORY OF THE LATE JUDGE BELL. 

Rev. E. G. Parsons offered the following tribute to the 
memory of the late Chief Justice Bell : 

" We miss from our presence to-day the distinguished and manly 
form of one whose family name was familiar to the early settlers 
of the Londonderry colony, and which has descended with dis- 
tinguished honor through each successive generation, — the late 
Hon. Samuel D. Bell, of Manchester, the patriotic citizen, the 
pur£-minded and honest man, and the humble believer in the faith 
of our early fathers." 

The sentiment was responded to by the Band, with the 
beautiful air of Pleyel's Hymn. 

Rev. Dr. Cyrus W. Wallace then sketched in a feeling 
and appreciative manner, the character of the late Judge 
Bell, with whom he had enjoyed an acquaintance of thirty 
years, and whom knew as an honest man, an able and 
upright jurist, and as a believer in the faith of his fathers. 

He also spoke of the religious character of the early set- 
tlers of the town, and remarked that their best monument 
existed in their works. He referred to a tour he had made 
to the British Isles, and named as among the most impres- 
sive incidents of the journey, his visits to the scenes of 
martyrdom, and the little walled town of Old London- 
derry, where a monument, surmounted by a figure of 
George Walker, perpetuates the memory of the noble men 
from whom we sprang. 

The remarks of Dr. Wallace were followed by the per- 
formance of " Old Hundred" by the band, the vast audience 
rising and joining in the familiar strains, with an effect 
which was strikingly solemn and impressive. 



61 



REMARKS. 

BY REV. NATHANIEL BOUTON, D.D. 

Rev. Dr. Bouton, of Concord, said he would not make a 
speech, but, as being more in his line, would read extracts 
from the Records of the Province touching the early set- 
tlers of Londonderry. The first bears date June 26, 1718, 
and is an order of the Governor and Council. 

1. " Whereas there are sundry familys of credit and rep- 
utation late arrived in this Government from Ireland, most 
of them 1 icing farmers, and disposed either to buy or rent 
lands, if to be had at reasonable terms w th in this Province, 

" Ordered, That publick notice be given throughout the 
Province, thereof, that any p'sons inclined either to lett or 
sell land, may have an opportunity so to do. 

" Richard Waldron, Cler. Con." 

SCHOOLS. 

2. " December 23, 1727. 

" In the House of Representatives. 

"Ordered, Upon the motion of James McKeen,Esq., and 
considering the Infancy of the Town of London Deny, 
Provided they keep two Schools for writing and reading in 
said Town, that they be exempted from the Penaltys in 
the Laws of this Province* relating to Grammar Schools, 
for one year now next ensuing, and to commence from 
their annual meeting in March next, and all courts that 
have authority in that affair are to take notice of this order 
and conform according to it. 

" James Jeffry, Cler. Ass m ." 

*In towns of one hundred families, the penalty for not maintaining' a gram- 
mar school in which Latin was taught was £20 for six months' neglect. 



62 

The reason that Mr. McKeen assigned for this motion 
was, that " the charge of the Grammar School will main- 
tain two other Schools for reading and writing, which is 
much more beneficial to them ; few, if any of them, being 
able to give their children Grammar learning." 

LINEN MANUFACTURES. 

3. " In the House of Representatives, May 7 th , 1731. 

" Whereas there are great frauds and deceit practiced by 
persons travelling in this Province by selling of Foreign 
Linnens under pretence they were made at Londonderry, 
in this Province, which tends to the Damage of those who 
really make and sell the Linen in Londonderry, &c., for 
prevention of which and for encouraging the manufac- 
turing Linen in said Town, 

" Voted, That an Act be drawn up authorizing the said 
Town to make choice of a suitable person to seal all such 
linen as shall be made in the said Town, and to have a Seal 
with the name of the Town engraved on it, and authority 
to such sealer (if suspect 'twas not made in the Town) to 
administer an oath to the persons that bring linen to be 
sealed, that it was bona fide made in said town." 

The foregoing extracts from the Province Records estab- 
lish three important points : 

1. The good character of the first settlers. 

2. The interest they felt in schools. 

3. The excellence of their home manufactures of linen. 



. *> 



63 



ADDRESS. 

by hon. aaron f. stevens. 

Fellow Citizens of Londonderry: 

You meet here to-day, a mighty concourse of the living, 
in the solemn and majestic presence of the dead. You are 
assembled to honor a brave and sturdy ancestry, and to 
rejoice in the fruition of those labors which were begun by 
them in the midst of suffering, privation and danger. No 
scene could be to us more suggestive, no occasion more in- 
teresting. Before you are the habitations of man, the 
growth of prosperity and peace, the homes of industry and 
independence. Around you are the broad and fertile acres 
where for generations your ancestors plowed and sowed 
and reaped the harvests which are the reward of skill and 
industry. The sunlight of peace rests upon us to-day with 
beams as refulgent as the brightness of the morning. I 
read in your countenances, turned now upon one who is to 
most of you a stranger, the unerring signs of happiness 
and contentment, such as God has vouchsafed to man in 
the great struggle of life. You have stirred the heavens 
with your shouts of welcome, and warmed the hearts of 
your guests with words of kindest greeting, while you have 
spread the bounty of your hospitality with lavish hand 
before the garnered children of Old Londonderry. I 
thank you for it all. I rejoice with you this day, and feel 
that " it is good for us to be here." For, whether we have 
come up to our try sting place to renew the acquaintance 
and associations of former years, to awaken the sweet, sad 
memories of the past, to grasp once more in manhood or 
age the hands that were last unclasped in the hope of early 
childhood, to mark with exultation the improvement and 



04 

progress in human affairs, and the prosperity and almost 
universal happiness which spring from them, or to contem- 
plate the heroic character of your ancestral kindred who 
now slumber with the great congregation of the dead, we 
shall, I am sure, each and all of us, draw from this occa- 
sion an inspiration which shall be to us in all time to come 
the spirit of beauty and joy. 

Fellow citizens, the study of human character, as con- 
nected with the lives of men true, great and noble, in the 
various departments of human action, is among the most 
interesting and useful occupations of the human mind. 
To me the contemplation of the character and services of 
those men whom we class as the pioneers of Old London- 
derry is the most natural and pleasing of the day's exer- 
cises. The good, experienced man, says an old philoso- 
pher, is the last measure of all things. 

With you I have listened to the words of the historian 
to-day with pride and pleasure, as he brought before us 
vividly and truthfully the record of the character and ser- 
vices of the fathers. I can detain you only to unite my 
tribute of praise, and to cast an unworthy garland before 
the passing pageant. It becomes me to speak briefly and 
modestly of the past in this presence, and in connection 
with memories and thoughts which are awakened by this 
occasion. The historic associations of the old township are 
mine by birth and citizenship alone. It -is not mine to 
trace a lineage to the brave old families who first cleared 
the forests and tilled the hitherto unbroken soil of London- 
derry ; who pierced the savage wilderness with hearts of 
oak and the weapons of civilization, and who planted here 
the seeds of Christian progress, that their children and 
their children's children might reap the golden harvest. 
But allow me to say that it is in no spirit of affectation 
that I claim to share the pride and the satisfaction with 
which you, their descendants, cherish their memories and 
bear their name. Their labors and their achievements are 



65 

the common heritage, and we will all unite here and here- 
after, to do them honor. 

To a descendant of one of the most eminent of the 
ancient families of Londonderry has been assigned the 
honorable duty of commemorating in fitting terms the 
progress of a century and a half in the history of your 
township. How well it has been accomplished, let your 
plaudits attest. I shall not seek' to follow closely in his 
footsteps. But think not, my friends, that, as I listened to 
the voice of merited approbation and encomium, I was a 
stranger to the associations which came thronging upon 
you. I thought how, for a period passing the memory of 
man, the family whose honored name he bears had worn, 
with dignity, usefulness and honor, the robes of the chief 
magistrate and the senator, the ermine of the judge, and 
the arms of a soldier of the Union. I felt, as I listened, 
that I should have the right to recall the personal and pro- 
fessional friendship of earlier years, which linked me in 
sweet and pleasant memory with the illustrious names of 
Londonderry. Yes, my friends, the associations of a life 
not destitute of vicissitude and change have brought me 
face to face with the representatives of your early ancestry. 
I might, indeed, forget that friendship which is formed 
from the common intercourse of life, that confidence be- 
tween man and his fellow which comes of ordinary asso- 
ciation ; but how could I fail to remember those which 
spring from the brotherhood of the camp and the field? 
And so, as I listened, there came crowding upon me 
thoughts and recollections, not only of the friendship of 
those high in elevated station, honored in civil life, but of 
one, a comrade in arms, a husband and a father, one of the 
earliest to march with me to the field, whose young blood 
was poured out on the altar of his country in that gallant 
yet fearful conflict, when amid bloodshed and carnage the 
blended arms of the Union triumphed, the laurels of 
Porter and Terry were won, and on the bloody bastions of 
5 



66 

Fort Fisher Louis Bell fell in the arms of victory, in the 
glory of his youth, in the splendor of his fame ! 

Yes, my friends, there is something, after all, arising out 
of the events of life, which gives us a right to cherish the 
memory of your noble ancestry. Do not mistake me. I 
speak of ancestry in in its true, American sense. I have 
little respect for that genealogy which traces its origin to 
accidental causes, while I would cherish with the warmest 
sentiments of esteem that which has descended worthily 
through trial, effort, endeavor, enterprise or honest thrift, 
and is ennobled by virtue and patriotism. Your pride of 
ancestry cannot rest on the accidents of life. Your an- 
cestors were neither rich nor titled. The early records 
and traditions of Nutfield show anything but that. They 
were poor in the riches of the world, but opulent in hope 
and resolution. They were earnest, firm, steady, and filled 
with faith. They believed in labor, and were not destitute 
of that martial spirit without which no people can preserve 
their liberties or become powerful. They abhorred forms, 
and were not the victims of superstition. Surrounded by 
the most discouraging circumstances, they cherished educa- 
tion as second only to practical religion. The energies 
which in other newly settled countries have been ex- 
hausted in trade, commerce or manufactures, were by 
them expended in clearing the forests, in tilling the soil 
and enhancing the comforts of home. With prosperity 
came their love of country and their desire for independ- 
ence. With surmounted trials came the inspirations of 
liberty, and out of the oppression of the mother govern- 
ment they sprang forth in the strength of effort and virtue, 
a nation among the nations of the earth, the pioneers of a 
free republican form of government, founded on the theory 
of the equality of man, and resting on the education and 
intelligence of the people. 

How fortunate are we who meet here to-day, the surviv- 
ors of an era which seems to have tested, through the terri- 



67 

ble trials of early rebellion, foreign war and civil commo- 
tion, the strength of this free and popular government of 
our fathers. The race from which we sprung has con- 
tended for centuries, in peace and war, against the doctrine 
which recognizes the divine origin of a government where 
the ruler is independent of the will of the subject and 
governs without responsibility to human power. Out of 
these contentions, and on the theory of inherent power in 
the body of the people, our English ancestors secured for 
themselves the habeas corpus, the right of conscience and 
trial by jury ; and the progress of events happily indicates 
for them a broader recognition of the right of self govern- 
ment. But it has been reserved for our own country and 
for your day and mine, to illustrate the principle by legal 
recognition, that all power is derived from the People, with- 
out respect to former distinctions, and that, as applicable to 
the necessities or requirements of government, it is in its 
very nature inalienable. We live in an age and at a day 
when that government, founded and established on this 
cardinal principle, has just emerged from the severest trial 
of its history — the Rebellion of the Nineteenth Century. 

When your fathers, fifty years ago, met to mark with 
due observance the lapse of a full century in their history, 
they congratulated each other, aye, with solemn services 
they thanked God, that through the throes of revolution, 
out of the dangers of foreign war, they had come forth 
triumphant. Might they not then felicitate themselves 
that this young, magnificent ship of state, launched by the 
hands of Washington and Lafayette, of Hamilton and 
Jefferson, was destined to sail successfully down the stream 
of time, no phantom shadow, but a living, majestic tribute 
to the wisdom and virtue of the fathers. 

Yet even then, in that year of 1819, the clouds were 
gathering portentously in the horizon. The " Missouri 
question " was culminating. Slavery, the slumbering de- 
mon forced upon us by England, and which our fathers 



68 

and permitted to sleep in the folds of the constitution, had 
been aroused, and was struggling with his chains. Thank 
God, it no longer finds place or countenance in American 
legislation or American jurisprudence. It has sunk to rise 
no more. It has gone down in that sanguinary sea of 
civil strife through which the nation has just passed, shar- 
ing the fate of like oppressions — the Spanish Inquisition, 
the fire and fagot of persecution. Our fathers of that day, 
apprehensive, were yet hopeful. Had a prescience of the 
future of the next half century been vouchsafed them, how 
quickly their rejoicing would have been turned to mourn- 
ing ! How they would have shrunk from the terrible 
vision ! What a history it has been ! A foreign war, in 
which the proud and triumphant arms of the nation pene- 
trated with irresistible valor the empire of a sister republic ; 
the expansion of territory, reaching from ocean to ocean, 
the golden slopes of the Pacific linked in one government 
with the Alleghanies and the Atlantic ; one flag from sea 
to sea across the wide continent ; a country magnificent in 
extent and terrible in the grandeur of its people and its 
resources ! Yet they would have beheld the institution of 
slavery, then in its infancy, now controlling every depart- 
ment of the national government, executive, legislative, 
judicial, pressing sharply on the liberty of the states, and 
at last rearing its horrid front athwart the sky, the tek- 

BIBLE REBELLION OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY; a Civil War 

of four years 1 duration, the fierce battalions struggling for 
mastery over a territory such as the Roman eagles never 
looked upon, with a valor worthy of the race and of their 
country, but with a cruelty overshadowing the annals of 
mediaeval warfare, when prisoners were slain, not starved: 
a war which called the youth and manhood of New Flamp- 
shire from their mountain homes to carry the mingling 
banners of state and nation to final triumph by sea and 
land ; — the downfall of slavery and rebellion, the final vic- 
tory, and again Peace, white-winged and lovely, rising 



09 

out of the horrors of civil war and waving her wand of 
beneficence over all the land. 

Such was not the vision of those who in 1819 celebrated 
the hundredth anniversary of the settlement of London- 
derry. Theirs was a vision of peace and prosperity ; theirs 
were the aspirations of hope. If they had reason to hope 
for the future of their country, have we not reason to 
rejoice in our triumphs over the unforeseen national trials 
which this generation has surmounted, and the greatness 
which it has achieved ? Nations can no more escape trial 
and disaster than individuals. As we surmount the ob- 
stacles and trials of life, hope, aspiration and joy advance 
to assume the places of doubt, distrust and fear. As our 
country has successfully withstood its new and greatest 
trial, though we may not dismiss apprehension, we may 
cherish a stronger faith in her grander destiny and in the 
success of free institutions. Those institutions have been 
baptized anew in the blood of heroes who now sleep on 
the banks of the Mississippi and the Ohio ; who are gath- 
ered from a hundred battle-fields to their final rest at 
Arlington and Gettysburg. 

With such a price has our liberty been twice purchased, 
and it is appropriate that here on this spot, surrounded by 
the blessings which bring happiness to human existence and 
stability to human institutions, the blessings of national 
liberty, of universal education, and the teaching of Chris- 
tianity, we should anew dedicate all we have and all we 
hope to be, to the maintenance of that government which 
has been transmitted to us from the fathers. 

Young men who mingle to-day in these most interesting 
ceremonies, let me invite you, in the spirit of an intelligent 
manhood, to turn and recall the lives and services of those 
early children of Londonderry who laid the foundations of 
this fair heritage, who followed closely the footsteps of the 
earlier pioneers, or who improved on what had been so 
worthily begun. Read and reflect upon what they did in 



70 

their day and generation, for the family, the slate, the 
nation. Follow them into the household ; go with them 
to the halls of legislation and justice; tread with them 
the path of martial duty and success. You will not, it is 
true, find them without error, but you may safely ask your- 
self where, in all history, will you find higher, purer, better 
examples of virtue and patriotism, of Christian character 
and Christian progress, than are recorded of these men of 
the olden time. And if you find that in contentment with 
their lot, in attachment to the religion of their fathers, in 
a warm and ardent patriotism ; in the frugal decencies of 
a country life, now so often shunned and contemned ; in a 
patient and continued industry which seldom fails to bring 
success ; in devotion to the interests of the family, while 
not neglectful of the interests of the neighborhood and 
state ; in the courage to repel wrong, and to contend, even 
to death, for the right ; in the just and moderate ambition 
to heighten and improve their condition in life, to increase 
the comforts and happiness of life by the unquestionable 
agencies of wealth and knowledge, and finally, to trust 
with implicit confidence and faith that Power whose mer- 
cies were recognized by the starving garrison on the banks 
of the Foyle, and by the struggling patriots at Bunker's 
Hill and Yorktown, — if you find in these the elements of 
character and evidences of success which we proudly cele- 
brate to-day, then I am justified in the sententious admo- 
nition, " Go thou and do likewise." 




. . ■ 



ADDRESS. 

by rev. cadford m. dins more. 

Mr. President : 

I confess to a feeling of embarrassment in being called 
upon so unexpectedly to speak at this grand centennial 
gathering. I regret that the family name, of which such 
honorable mention has just been made, is compelled to put 
up with so unworthy a representative. We are disap- 
pointed in not hearing from some one of the distinguished 
kindred at my left, hailing from New York, Ohio and 
Kentucky. 

Some complaint has been made of not being able to 
hear. Please, dear friends, give yourselves no trouble 
about that. I have but little to say, and at this late hour I 
think you will be glad of it. The eloquent gentlemen who 
have preceded me have left nothing unsaid. 

A certain pious old Roman was accustomed to thank the 
gods daily for three things, viz. : first, that he was a man ; 
secondly, that he was a Roman ; and thirdly, that he was 
cotemporary with the great Cato. Ought we not to express 
our heartfelt thanks that we are permitted to enjoy this 
memorable occasion, the like of which to us will never re- 
turn ; that a kind Providence has favored us with a day 
so auspicious, so full of sunshine and joy ; that the God 
of our fathers has been with their children ; that he gave 
to us such a noble ancestry ; and that so many worthy de- 
scendants of the old Londonderry stock, some occupying 
high political and social positions, have come " from near 
and from far " to participate in these festivities ? 

As I look over this vast assemblage, and picture to my 



72 



mind the little band of early settlers, as they appeared a 
hundred years ago, the words of the prophet are fulfilled 
in our history, " A little one shall become a thousand, and 
a small one a great nation." 

A lady was speaking to me this morning somewhat dis- 
paragingly of Nuffield : its sandbanks and barren plains; 
its shrub-oaks and stunted pines, in lieu of which two 
mullein-stalks and a huckleberry bush made a grove ; and 
the pigs so poor and lank that in plucking a spear of grass 
they would fall over. Now that is all a mistake. What 
soil has been more prolific? Its inhabitants have been 
fruitful and multiplied, and replenished the earth. 

If departed spirits take cognizance of what transpires on 
earth, then may our venerable Scotch Irish grandmothers 
look down from the battlements of heaven upon these fair 
daughters and manly sons before me, and with the proud 
mother of the Gracchi say, " These are my jewels." 

Tenacity of opinion was a prominent trait of Scottish 
character. An old Scotchman of Boston used to say, 
" I'm open to conviction, but I 'd like to see the man that 
can convince me." It is related of old Minister Wells, the 
predecessor of the Rev. Dr. Storrs, of Braintree, Mass., 
himself a Scotchman, that he used to say : " It behooveth 
a Scotchman to be right ; for if he be wrong, he be for- 
ever and eternally wrong." He was no modern turncoat. 
Could the Cynic who said, " I seek a man," have met with 
a genuine Scotch Covenanter, his wish would have been 
realized. 

Industry characterized the women. They were true 
helpmeets to their husbands. They were keepers at home, 
and trained up their children to serve their country and 
their God. Their piano was the hum of the wheel and 
the stroke of the loom.- They had no time to discuss 
woman's rights. Their lectures were given in a more pri- 
vate capacity. 



'3 



If the ideas of those loquacious Araazonians prevail, 
what are we coining to ? In a recent Female Suffrage 
Convention those gentle agitators unanimously voted that 
if they could not have their rights they would stop the 
population of the country ! 



ADDRESS. 

by hon. aaron h. cragin. 

Mr. President: 

There is .such a thing in this world as too much of a 
good thing, and I have no doubt this audience have con 
eluded they have had enough of speaking, though the 
speeches have been more than good. Besides, Mr. Presi 
dent, I have no right to occupy this stand. I am not a 
native of this glorious old town, or the descendant of a 
native ; bat I can claim to be a descendant of the same 
stock. My great ancestor, John Cragin, a Scotchman, was 
taken prisoner at the battle of Dunbar, and banished to 
this country. From him have sprung all of our name in 
the United States. I may, therefore, properly feel an 
interest in the celebration of the settlement of London 
derry by Scotchmen, and a pride in their character and 
noble deeds. I glory in the virtues and achievements ol 
the founders of Londonderry, and I shall never lose faith 
in the perpetuity of the free institutions of this Republic 
and the freedom of the people, so long as such virtues and 
deeds are reverenced and emulated. 



75 



FINALE. 

It was now announced by the President of the da)' that 
the regular programme had been carried out, and it was 
moved and seconded that the meeting be adjourned for 
fifty years. The motion prevailed. Extra trains of cars 
were in readiness, and were soon on their homeward way, 
filled to overflowing. Of course great numbers remained 
in Derry and Londonderry, to revive old associations, and 
to tell the stories of other days. 

All in all, the celebration was a complete, conspicuous 
and very emphatic success. Not an incident nor an acci- 
dent occurred to detract from the general effect of pleas- 
antness and gratification. Fifty years hence may the 
records of this festival be read to other generations in 
larger numbers and larger tents, upon the plains of old 
Londonderry. Long live the descendants of the Scotch 
Irish ! 








^ 




o 



C f / ~KL 



^U 



BTO GRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



HON. SAMUEL D. BELL, LL D. 

BY HON'. CHARLES H. BELL, OF EXETER, X. H. 

[Prom the N. E. Hist, and Genealogical Register.] 

It is seldom that a life has been passed of greater useful- 
ness than that of the late Chief Justice Bell, of New 
Hampshire. He was never in the most conspicuous field 
of public employment, nor were his labors of a character 
to awaken the popular admiration ; but for many years he 
occupied a most important and responsible position in his 
state, and the service he rendered to the community was 
constant and of inestimable value. 

Samuel Dana Bell was born in Francestown, N> H., 
October 9, 1798. His father was the Hon. Samuel Bell, 
LL.D., a judge of the Superior Court, four years governor 
of New Hampshire, and twelve years a senator of the 
United States. His mother was a (laughter of the Hon. 
Samuel Dana, of Amherst, N. H. 

He manifested, at an early age, the love of study which 
distinguished him through life. He entered Harvard Col- 
lege in his fourteenth year, and was graduated in the class 
of 1816. He then commenced the study of the law in the 
office of the Hon. George Sullivan, of Exeter, and was 
admitted to the bar of the county of Rockingham early in 
the year 1820. 

The first few months of his professional life he passed in 
Meredith, in the present county of Belknap, but within the 



78 

year he established himself in Chester, then a town of 
some note, and the home of several gentlemen of cultiva- 
tion and distinction. Entering into practice there, he soon 
acquired a reputation for being a sagacious, learned and 
trustworthy lawyer, and obtained an ample business and 
the full confidence of the community. In the year 1828, he 
was appointed solicitor of the county of Rockingham for 
the term of five years. In 1825 and 1826, he was elected 
a representative in the state legislature, and in the latter 
year was placed upon a commission to revise the statutes 
of the state. In 1827 and 1828, he was chosen clerk of 
the house of representatives, and in the latter year was 
reappointed county solicitor, which office, however, he 
declined. 

Mr. Bell remained in Chester ten years, and then took 
up his residence in Exeter, the half-shire town of the 
county of Rockingham, where he discharged the duties of 
cashier of the Exeter Bank for some years, though with- 
out relinquishing his legal studies, or even the whole of his 
practice. 

In 1836 he determined to devote his entire time to his 
profession, and with that view removed to Concord, the 
capital of the state ; but it soon being apparent that Man- 
chester was to become the leading town of New Hamp- 
shire, and upon receiving the appointment of general attor- 
ney to the company chiefly concerned in its advancement, 
he determined to make that place his home, and fixed his 
residence there in 1839. 

In 1840 Mr. Bell was placed at the head of a commis- 
sion for another revision of the statutes. To this work, 
the greater part of which fell to his share, he gave un- 
wearied care and research. It was completed in about two 
years, and in a manner which admirably met the urgent 
wants of the legal profession and of the community. 

In 1846 Manchester had found the need of a city char- 
ter, and Mr. Bell, at the desire of the leading citizens, 



79 

accepted the office of judge of the police court, which he 
held long enough to fix upon that tribunal the impress of 
his own accurate and systematic habits ; and, two years 
later, he received the appointment of circuit judge of the 
Common Pleas throughout the state. This office he held 
until 1849, when he was placed upon the bench of the 
Superior Court, the highest tribunal of the state. In 1859 
he was elected to the position of Chief Justice, which he 
retained until his resignation in 18G4. 

It, was his intention from this time to relinquish all pro- 
fessional employment, and he declined every retainer, even 
those of a permanent and lucrative character, and which 
were offered him in a form to encroach little upon his pur- 
suits or leisure. In 1866, however, on being again ap- 
pointed at the head of a commission to revise the statutes, 
he did not refuse his assent, but with his usual diligence 
and fidelity acquitted himself of the arduous duty, which 
was accomplished so speedily that the work was before the 
legislature in season to be adopted at the ordinary brief 
session in 1867. 

This was the last public service upon which Judge Bell 
was engaged. His health had been delicate for some years 
before, and about this time he was prostrated by an attack 
of inflammatory rheumatism, from which he never re- 
covered. He lingered in a condition of great helplessness 
lor a year after, bearing his privations and occasional suf- 
ferings with cheerfulness, and died at his residence in 
Manchester, on the olst day of July, 1868. 

Judge Bell received from nature an inquiring disposition, 
a retentive memory, and a love of order and method, to 
which he added habits of untiring application. He was 
never inclined to out-door occupations, and almost the 
whole of his time, out of the court-room, was passed in Ins 
office or 4 library. He found his amusement and recreation, 
as well as his employment, in his books and pen. 

His profession was, of course, the first object of his 



80 

study. He pursued it to an extent and in directions far 
beyond the usual range of lawyers, even of the foremost 
rank. He not only made himself master of the common 
law and equity systems, from the works of the early sages 
of the profession down to the latest reported cases, but was 
scarcely less familiar with the civil law, the French code, 
the jurisprudence of Scotland, and even the legislation of 
each of the United States. From all these sources he 
drew reasons, analogies and illustrations, to fortify and en- 
rich his judicial opinions. 

He possessed rare personal qualifications for a position 
upon the bench. Dignified in appearance and bearing, he 
was distinguished for patience and courtesy. He mnde 
abundant allowance for the diffident and the slow; but he 
had no tolerance for conceit and impudence. He had all an 
honorable man's aversion to meanness and the lower arts 
of the profession ; he used his position and authority to 
promote no partisan or partial purposes. Knowing no 
favorites, he rather imposed severer terms on those whom 
he might be expected to favor, when they chanced to ask 
for some indulgence from the court. With his methodical, 
laborious habits, it may well be supposed that the duties of 
his position were always promptly discharged. No cause 
languished in his court by reason of the unreadiness of the 
judge. 

He was a man of very decided opinions. Quick in his 
impressions, he was ready enough to yield them for suffi- 
cient cause; but when he had deliberately arrived at a con- 
clusion, it was after a careful examination and reasoning, 
and he did not easily abandon it. It is not surprising that 
those who were so unfortunate as to disagree with him 
sometimes thought him unduly tenacious and hard to 
move; but it is believed that not even the most vehement 
opponent ever doubted his sincerity and the honesty of his 
convictions. 

It is somewhat remarkable that Judge Bell, being no 



81 

little of a " black-letter lawyer," and living, as it were, so 
much in the past, was not a determined foe to innovations 
upon antiquas vias. But he was, on the contrary, quite 
ready to recognize the operations of the spirit of the age 
upon the legal system, and was by no means slow to 
embody in the statutes, and even in his judicial opinions, 
the growth of modern sentiment in amelioration of the 
ruder doctrines of the early law. 

The purity of Judge Bell's public and private life de- 
serves to be mentioned, to his honor. The ermine which 
he wore was unsullied indeed ; no shade of wrong or dis- 
honor ever fell upon his name. In a long life, so great a 
part of which was passed in the discharge of official em- 
ployments, many as were the persons who must have been 
disappointed by his acts and opinions, no one of them ever 
ventured to cast a reflection upon his motives or his con- 
duct. He went down to his grave with his fair fame wear- 
ing its life-long lustre, and with the sincere respect of even 
those who most widely differed from him. 

His studies were by no means limited to his profession. 
He was a great general reader, and his stores of knowl- 
edge upon matters unconnected with the law were remark- 
able ; but he gave more special attention to history and the 
kindred subjects of biography, genealogy and topography, 
to mechanics and the natural sciences. In these depart- 
ments he was satisfied with no half-knowledge, and it was 
his habit to keep himself fully informed of every fresh pub- 
lication and discovery. 

It may not be uninteresting to mention the field of his- 
torical investigation in which he was most engaged. Per- 
haps there was no subject on which he bestowed more 
labor than that of the early history of his own state, and 
in connection with it, the first European settlements upon 
the eastern shores of New England. By long study and 
diligent research of scattered and neglected sources of in- 
formation, this had become familiar ground to him, and it 
6 



82 

is much to be regretted that the exacting nature of his em- 
ployments did not allow him the leisure to embody his 
knowledge on a subject so full of interest and so little 
understood, in a form to be available to others. 

He did, indeed, make some progress in gathering the 
materials for a work which was to him a labor of love, 
upon the Judicial History of New Hampshire. Through- 
out his life he had assiduously collected all that was to be 
learned from record and tradition, of the courts, the ju- 
diciary and the bar, of his state. His own recollection 
extended over the period of half a century, and to the 
times of the "giants of the law," and his memory was 
richly stored with the anecdotes and sketches of personal 
character, so apt to be rejected as trifling by grave histo- 
rians, but which give a living interest to the bare outlines, 
which are all that usually survive to us of the persons and 
things of the past generations. No one could have per- 
formed such an undertaking so well as Judge Bell, had his 
health permitted him to complete it ; but before he had 
brought his work up to the close of the first century, it was 
interrupted by the hand of disease, and was never resumed. 
It is to be hoped that even the fragment of a work of so 
much interest and value will not be suffered to pass into 
oblivion. 

Immersed in study as he was, Judge Bell had no want of 
interest in plans for the public advantage. Manchester, 
his home, now a thriving city of some thirty thousand 
souls, was, when he fixed his abode there, a mere village, 
with its future all undetermined. Upon its few leading 
inhabitants depended the question of its subsequent moral, 
material and social status. Judge Bell entered with inter- 
est into every scheme for the prospective welfare of the 
town. Among the public enterprises which he was greatly 
instrumental in establishing, was that of the City Library, 
which, in spite of all drawbacks, is to-day extensive, valua- 
ble, and incalculably useful to the people ; and being fixed 



83 

upon a liberal and permanent basis, will ere long be among 
the foremost institutions of its kind, and will remain a fit- 
ting monument of the wisdom and forecast which laid its 
foundation. 

Judge Bell was an early member of the New Hampshire 
Historical Society, and for years held its principal offices. 
He prepared two valuable papers upon historical subjects, 
which he read before that society, and contributed largely 
to several volumes of its published collections. He was 
always earnest in his efforts for its maintenance and wel- 
fare, and at one time assumed alone considerable pecuniary 
liabilities which were weighing heavily upon the institution. 
He retained his interest in it to the last, and was upon its 
committee of publication up to the time of his decease. 

Such is a mere outline of some of the more prominent 
characteristics of one who was a learned jurist, a ripe 
scholar, and an upright and earnest man. Yet it cannot 
but be felt how poorly and unworthily it will indicate to 
those who never knew him the high and unselfish aims, the 
symmetrical character, the useful and exemplary life, and 
the beneficent influence, which are held in so tender re- 
membrance by the circle of his friends. 

Judge Bell's descent was as follows : 

PATERNAL. 

Matthew Bell, a native of Scotland, emigrated to Ireland 
some years before the siege of Londonderry, at which he 
was present, and had two sons (known): Matthew, who 
emigrated to New York, and John Bell, 2 born near Colrain, 
in Ireland, 1679 ; married, 171—, Elizabeth Todd ; came to 
this country about 1719, and settled in Londonderry, N. H., 
and died there July 8, 1743. They had six daughters and 
three sons, of whom the youngest was John Bell, 3 born in 
Londonderry, N. H., August 15, 1730 ; married, December 
21, 1758, Mary Ann Gilmore, and died in Londonderry, 
November 30, 1825. They had seven daughters and five 



84 

sons, of whom the sixth child and third son was Samuel 
Bell, 4 born in Londonderry, February 9, 1770 ; married, 
first, May 26, 1797, Mehi table Bowen Dana, by whom he 
had two daughters and four sons ; and second, July 4, 
1826, Lucy Giddings Smith, by whom he had four sons, 
and died in Chester, N. H., December 23, 1850. His first 
child by his first marriage was Samuel Dana Bell 5 . 

BIATERNAL. 

Richard Dana was born in England, emigrated to this 
country, and married, in 164-, Ann Bullard, in Cambridge, 
Mass., and died there April 2, 1690. They had four 
daughters and seven sons, of whom the seventh child and 
sixth son was Benjamin Dana, 2 born in Cambridge, Febru- 
ary 20, 1660 ; married, May 23, 1688, Mary Buckminster, 
and died in Cambridge, August 13, 1738. They had three 
daughters and seven sons, of whom the seventh child and 
sixth son was William Dana, 3 born in Cambridge, October 
11, 1703 ; married, in 1735, Mary Greene, and died in 
Cambridge, May 17, 1770. They had three daughters and 
six sons, of whom the second son and child was Samuel 
Dana, 4 born in Cambridge, January 14, 1739 ; married, 
May 6, 1762, Anna Kenrick, and died in Amherst, N. H., 
April 1, 1798. They had six sons and six daughters, of 
whom the fourth daughter and tenth child was Mehitable 
Bowen Dana," born in Groton, Mass., November 8, 1780; 
married, May 26, 1797, Samuel Bell, and died in Amherst, 
N. H., September 17, 1810. Her first child was Samuel 
Dana Bell. 6 



85 



HON. E. H. DERBY. 

Elias Hasket Derby was born in Salem, Mass., September 
24, 1803, and removed with his father, the late General 
E. H. Derby, to Londondery, N. H., in 1815. After a pre- 
paratory course of five years at the Pinkerton Academy, he 
entered Harvard University, in 1820, as a Londonderry 
boy, and graduated with the third part, the Latin Oration, 
for the Bachelor's and Master's Degree. 

While in college he was distinguished as a classical 
scholar, and for close application to study. He read law 
with the Hon. Daniel Webster, then at the zenith of his 
fame. 

In 1827 he opened an office in Boston, embarking at first 
in general practice, but for the last thirty years he has 
made railway questions a specialty ; his eminence in that 
direction often bringing him in conflict with Curtis, Loring, 
Choate and Webster. He has done much to shape the rail- 
way legislation of the country. 

Mr. Derby, while pursuing his profession, has served also 
in the direction of the Western and Fitchburg lines, al- 
ways advocating a liberal policy. He presided over the 
Old Colony and Metropolitan lines when they required a 
skillful pilot. 

While achieving legal eminence, Mr. Derby has not for- 
saken the pleasant walks of literature which inspired and 
charmed his college days. The " Edinburgh Review," the 
" Atlantic Monthly," and, indeed, nearly all the leading 
magazines at home and abroad, have been enriched by 
articles from his pen. He is also the author of " Two 
' Months Abroad," " The Catholic," "' The Overland Route 
to the Pacific," and many reports on the British Provinces, 
the Fisheries, and kindred subjects, written while Com- 
missioner of the United States, all of which had wide cir- 
culation. 



86 

Mr. Derby has contributed to the progress of public im- 
provement. He was actively engaged in opening steam 
communication on the coast of Maine, and his resolutions, 
endorsed by a meeting of Boston merchants, led Cunard 
to enlarge his steamships from eight hundred to eleven 
hundred and fifty tons, and to make Boston his terminus, 
in place of Halifax. 

During our late struggle the country was indebted to 
him for the spirit with which he took up and pursued the 
construction of ironclads, and one of his letters, read on 
the floor of Congress by the Hon. E. B. Washburn, once a 
student in his office, in which he predicted a great national 
calamity if Congress failed to pass the bill, under which 
the first monitor was built, is supposed to have carried 
the measure. 

His success in life has enabled him to aid others, and to 
educate four sons for the learned professions. 



REV. C. M. DINSMORE. 

Cadford M. Dinsmore, son of John T. G. Dinsmore, was 
born in Windham, N. H., August 20, 1826. Subseqently 
his parents moved to Derry. His time, during his minority, 
was divided between laboring on the farm, attending school 
and teaching. He pursued his preparatory studies at the 
rinkerton Academy and the Seminary at Sanbornton 
Bridge, and graduated at the Wesleyan University, Mid- 
dletown, Conn., in the class of 1851. He studied theology 
at Concord, N. H. Before entering the ministry, he was 
principal of the Academy at Andover. 

November 23, 1852, he married Miss Cornelia P. Hall, 
of Colchester, Conn. Since he joined the New Hampshire 
Annual Conference of the Methodist Espiscopal Church, 
he has been stationed at the following places, viz. : Peter- 



87 

borough, Rindge, Newmarket, Suncook, Lawrence, Mass., 
Great Falls, Newport, Keene and Portsmouth. 

In 1854 he was elected a member of the Legislature, 
and in 1866 received the appointment of Commissioner of 
Common Schools for Sullivan County and member of the 
Board of Education for the state. During the late war he 
served for a time in the Christian Commission, chiefly at 
Fortress Monroe and Petersburg. 

Mr. Dinsmore is an able and highly successful preacher 
of the gospel in the denomination to which he belongs. 
His energy of character and general ability have won for 
him an enviable position in the New Hampshire Con- 
ference. 



ADJUTANT-GENERAL NATT HEAD. 

Adjutant -General Natt Head was born in Hooksett, 
N. H., May 20, 1828. His father, Colonel John Head, who 
died in 1836, was a farmer and a heavy lumber dealer, and 
an esteemed and valuable citizen. The son continued the 
business of the father, and, in connection with a brother, is 
still extensively engaged in farming, lumbering, and the 
manufacture of brick. He was early successful in busi- 
ness, and soon gained an enviable reputation for enterprise, 
integrity and honorable dealing. These qualities have 
given General Head prominence in various matters of pub- 
lic concern. He built the line of railroad from Suncook to 
Hooksett, and that from Suncook to Pittsfield. He also re- 
built the United States Military Asylum at Augusta, Maine, 
the first structure having been destroyed by fire. 

In the financial world he has attained a high rank, and 
is a director of the First National Bank, and a trustee of the 
Merrimack River Savings Bank, of Manchester, president of 



88 

the China Savings Bank, of Suncook, and a director of the 
Suncook Valley Railroad. 

In civil affairs he exhibits marked executive talent, and 
has filled various town offices, and in 1861 and 1862 he 
represented Hooksett in the Legislature. 

As a practical farmer, he has always taken a deep inter- 
est in agriculture, and has been a long time a director of 
the State Society, and is now its president and a life mem- 
ber. In 1869 he was appointed by the Governor and 
Council a trustee of the New Hampshire College of Agri- 
culture and the Mechanic Arts. 

From his father, who was many years an officer in the 
State Militia, and from his paternal grandfather, Captain 
Nathaniel Head, who served meritoriously as an officer 
through the Revolutionary war, General Head inherited 
military taste and spirit. He is a member of the National 
Lancers of Boston, and of the Battalion of Amoskeag Vet- 
erans, of Manchester, of which corps he is the commander. 
In 1863 he was appointed chief of the Governor's staff, 
and in 1861 was made by Governor Gilmore Adjutant-, 
Inspector- and Quartermaster-General of the State of New 
Hampshire. He was called to this position at a time when 
the nation was in one of the most important crises of the 
great civil war, and when the loyal people of New Hamp- 
shire were straining every nerve to raise the men called 
for under the President's proclamation of the preceding 
month. During the remainder of the war he rendered, 
the country important aid. No state in the Union had 
a more faithful, efficient and popular Adjutant-General 
than New Hampshire. The clerical duties of the office 
were performed in an admirable manner, and the meth- 
od by which the records of our soldiers were persis- 
tently hunted up and placed on file, and the order and sys- 
tem exhibited in carrying on and preserving the extensive 
and valuable correspondence of the department, are worthy 
of the highest praise. Many letters are now preserved in 



89 

the office, from the highest civil and military officers of 
New Hampshire, from Adjutant-Generals of various states, 
and from the War and other departments at Washington, 
all testifying to the excellence of the system inaugurated, 
and to the highly efficient manner in which the affairs of 
the office were conducted. 

The reports of the department, during the administra- 
tion of General Head, not only give the name and history 
of every officer and soldier who entered the service from 
New Hampshire, but they contain biographical sketches of 
all the field officers from our state who were killed in battle, 
or who died from disease during the war, together with a brief 
history of all the regiments, giving their principal move- 
ments from their departure to their return home. These 
reports further include the military history of New Hamp- 
shire from 1623 to 1861, the records of which period were 
collected with great perseverance and under many discour- 
agements, from various sources in this and other states, 
and from the rolls of the War Department at Washington, 
thus making the reports, as a whole, a work of great value 
to our people of the present day, and at the same time con- 
stituting an invaluable contribution to the military history 
of the nation, while its worth to posterity cannot be esti- 
mated. 

As a citizen, General Head occupies a high and popular 
position, by reason of his genial and courteous manners 
and his large public spirit, while his constant and un- 
wearied devotion to the " Boys in Blue " secured for him 
the highest respect and esteem, and won for him the en- 
during title of " The Soldiers' Friend." 



90 



HON. GEORGE W, PATTERSON. 

George Washington Patterson was born in Londonderry, 
N. H., November 11, 1799. He was the youngest of the 
twelve children of Deacon Thomas Patterson and Eliza- 
beth Wallace, eleven of whom reached mature life. His 
early years were mainly spent in assisting his father and 
brothers in the cultivation of the paternal acres, picking 
up what education he could from a few brief terms at the 
common school and at the Pinkerton Academy. 

He occupied himself, during the winter of 1817-18, in 
teaching a district school in Pelham, N. H. In June fol- 
lowing he went to Western New York, wheue he laid the 
foundation of his fortune in the manufacture of fanning 
mills. In the spring of 182-1, he purchased a farm in 
Leicester, Livingston County, N. Y., built the first framed 
house in that vicinity, and became a farmer. Here he re- 
mained until 1841, when he removed to Westfield, N. Y., 
where he now lives, to take charge of the business of the 
Holland Land Company, a position just vacated by the 
Hon. W. H. Seward, who had been chosen governor. 

Mr. Patterson has been called to suffer his full share of 
the burdens and responsibilities of public life. Passing 
over without mention the many minor offices which he has 
filled, he was member of the New York Assembly in 1831, 
'32-, '34, '35, '36, '37, '38, '39 and '40, the last two of which 
he was Speaker. In the autumn of 1848 he was elected 
Lieutenant-Governor of New York for two years, on the 
same ticket with Hamilton Fish as Governor. Besides 
these offices, he held for many years state positions of 
great responsibility at Albany and New York, under ap- 
pointment of Governors Seward, Clark and Morgan. 

In 1825 he married Hannah Whiting Dickey, daughter 
of the late John Dickey, Esq., of Londonderry, N. H. 
They have two children, George Washington, jr., who is a 



91 

banker at Corning, N. Y., and Hannah W., who lives at 
Westfield. 

Mr. Patterson has large acquaintance with the leading 
men of the day, and has been eminently successful in ac. 
quiring wealth, position and influence. His large fortune 
enables him to dispense the most liberal charities, and no 
man is more judicious or generous in their bestowal. Of 
course he has many friends, and thousands have enjoyed 
the genial companionship and kindly hospitalities of him- 
self and his accomplished family, at his mansion on the 
shores of Lake Erie. 



HON. JAMES WILLIS PATTERSON. 

James Willis Patterson springs from some of the best 
stock of the people who originally settled Londonderry. 
Alexander Patterson, the emigrant, one of the origi- 
nal settlers of the northern section of the town, was a 
man of character, as the records of the town show, — a re- 
port in his handwriting and signed by him, as the chairman 
of an important committee of reference, being found among 
the papers, of as early date as 1748. His wife, Elizabeth 
Arbuckle, was the only woman whose name appears on the 
call of Rev. David MacGregor. 

Joseph Patterson, grandfather of the Senator, married 
Susannah Duncan, whose mother, Naomi Bell, was a sister 
of Hon. John Bell, the father of Governor John and of 
Senator Samuel Bell. 

William Patterson, son of Joseph and father of the Sen- 
ator, settled upon a farm in Henniker, and there the sub- 
ject of this sketch was born, July 2, 1823, his mother, 
Frances Mary Shepard, being a second wife. 

The early education of Senator Patterson, with the ex- 



92 

ception of a term or two at the academy, to which he 
traveled a distance of more than three miles, was gleaned 
from the limited advantages of a district school, the income 
of the farm allowing nothing more. He always worked 
during the summers upon the farm, from early boyhood, 
till the family removed to Lowell, when he went into a 
cotton mill. The agent of the mill, John Aiken, Esq.,- 
of Andover, Mass., however, soon becoming interested in 
his character, took him into his counting-room, and was 
ever after his friend and adviser. 

The family returning to the farm after an absence of 
same years, this son went with them, worked upon the 
farm one season, and kept the district school in Henniker 
village, witli marked success, in the winter. The next 
year found him in Lowell, in the counting-room with his 
friend again, where he remained two or three years, in a 
restless, dissatisfied state of mind, till, with the approval 
of his employer, he started out determined to go to college. 
In a year and a half, with a most inadequate preparation, 
acquired in part under an incompetent teacher, but mostly 
with no teacher at all, he entered Dartmouth College, 
whore he took the lead of his class, graduating with the 
first honor in 1848. 

From college he went to Woodstock, Connecticut, taking 
charge of an academy and studying law at the same time. 
There he formed a warm and permanent intimacy with 
Henry Ward Beecher, who used to spend the summer 
months in that town, and under his persuasions he was 
induced to turn from the Law to Theology. In 1851 he 
entered the Theological Seminary of New Haven, and 
under the rigid exactions of the celebrated Dr. Nathaniel 
Taylor, completed the course in half the prescribed time, 
more than paying his expenses meanwhile by instructing a 
private class of ladies in the city. 

In 1852 he was called back to Dartmouth as Tutor in 
Mathematics ; in 1854 was promoted to the professorship 



93 

in that department, and in 1859, when the chair of Astron- 
omy and Heterology was founded, he was promoted to that 
professorship, the duties of which he continued with emi- 
nent efficiency to discharge till his congressional life com- 
pelled his resignation. 

His first work in public life was as Secretary of the 
Board of Education, and the eminent capacity which, 
from 1858 to 1862 inclusive, he brought to this arduous 
position, attracted the attention of the state, contributing 
unquestionably to his speedy entrance into larger honors. 
In 1862 he was in the State Legislature, at once assuming 
a leading position. In 1863 he was elected a Representa- 
tive in Congress, reelected in 1865, and chosen Senator in 
1867, for the term ending in 1873. In the present Con- 
gress he is serving as a prominent member of the leading 
Committee on Foreign Relations, second on the Committee 
on the District of Columbia, and Chairman of the Joint 
Committee on Retrenchment. 

Senator Patterson, though one of the readiest and most 
attractive orators in that body, does not often address the 
Senate. He does not speak, except when a clear sense of 
duty calls upon him, never permits himself to make a set 
speech without thorough preparation, deals chiefly with fun- 
damental principles, and commands invariably the close at- 
tention of his associates. He is a close student, laborious in 
the committees, gives his whole energies to his public 
duties, and no senator has achieved a higher standing than 
he occupies, who has not been longer than he a member of 
that body. His duties upon the District Committee for 
years have brought him into familiar relations with the 
people of the District, and it is not too much to say that 
no senator ever stood higher than he in their estimation. 
His rare eloquence, not only upon the stump, but in the 
higher ranges of literature and of statesmanship, has beset 
him in every direction with calls for addresses, from his 
first appearance in public life, and the manner in which he 



V 

» 



94 

has always met every call which he has accepted, has mul- 
tiplied the importunities. No member of Congress is so 
eagerly sought in the District when the dignities and the 
graces of eloquence are in requisition, in behalf of any 
good work, and no member secures larger or choicer audi- 
ence, this being the more striking from the fact that his 
popular appeals are essentially to the understanding, not the 
mere sounding captivations for the ear. Some of his efforts 
in the Senate have attracted great attention, his argument, 
in the matter of the consular service being one of the 
earliest of his elaborate speeches, its exhaustive character 
producing a revolution in that system. Some of his more 
recent efforts upon the great leading questions of states- 
manship have been of still more breadth and power. 

Senator Patterson married Sarah Wilder, of Meredith, 
N. H., a lady of talents and education, and they have one 
child, a son of some dozen years of age. The portrait of 
Senator Patterson in this volume, will be recognized by 
those familiar with him as an exceedingly life-like, ac- 
curate likeness. 



HON. FREDERICK SMYTH. 

Ex-Governor Frederick Smyth, chief officer and manager 
of the Merrimack River Savings Bank, and of the First 
National Bank of Manchester, was born in Candia, March 
9, 1819. His earlier years, in the intervals of time not 
devoted to common school and academic education, were 
occupied in farm labor. 

In 1838 he began in Manchester as a clerk, and soon 
commenced business for himself. In 1849 he was chosen 
City Clerk, which office he held for three years, when he 
was made Mayor of the city, a position to which he was 
elected three times in succession. Among the permanent 








GOVERNOR 01 ",1865-66. 



95 

results of these years, may be named the Free Public 
Library, the New Passenger Station, the Falls Bridge, and 
the annexation of Amoskeag and Piscataquog. In 18(54, 
at the desire of both parties, he was again chosen to the 
same office. 

In 1855 he was appointed chairman of a Board of Com- 
missioners, one of whom was the late Judge Harvey, to 
locate and build a House of Reformation for Juvenile Of- 
fenders, a work successfully accomplished in the face of 
much opposition. 

In 1861 he made a brief European tour, acting as com- 
missioner to the World's Fair in London, where he was 
one of the jurors, and also in behalf of the United States 
Agricultural Society, visiting kindred associations in Great 
Britain and on the Continent. 

In 1865 Mr. Smyth was chosen Governor of the state by 
the largest majority for twenty-five years. He was tri- 
umphantly reelected in 1866, and the same year was ap- 
pointed by Congress one of the managers, for a term of six 
years, of the National Asylum for Disabled Soldiers. A 
very general desire was manifested that he should be a 
candidate for a third gubernatorial term, but he positively 
declined. 

In recognition of his services in behalf of Dartmouth 
College, that institution conferred upon him the degree of 
Master of Arts, and made him a trustee of the Agricultural 
College. 

In 1844 Mr. Smyth married Emily, daughter of the late 
John Lane, Esq., of Candia, a lady highly esteemed by her 
many friends for her noble qualities of mind and excel- 
lences of character. He is perhaps as good an example 
of a thoroughly self-made man as the limits of the old 
" Chestnut Country " can show, and is a proof of the 
fact that it is not necessary to emigrate from New Hamp- 
shire to find a sphere for enterprise and energy. 



96 



GEN. AARON F. STEVENS. 

Aaron Fletcher Stevens was born August 19, 1819, in 
Londonderry (now Derry), N. H. He was the only son of 
Captain John F. and Martha Stevens, who had but a short 
time previous removed from Massachusetts to that town. 
There were three daughters, Martha M., Mary Ann and 
Permilia, the -latter two of whom are still living. 

Captain Stevens was a man of great activity and indus- 
try, and both parents entertained the strongest desire for 
the education and improvement of their children. The 
father had for some twenty years been in sea-faring pur- 
suits, and had been left by the vicissitudes of fortune with 
limited means when he retired, at the earnest solicitation 
of the mother, from the adventurous life of a mariner to 
the quiet of the country. 

A residence of ten years in Londonderry gave the elder 
children more than an ordinary advantage for an educa- 
tion. In 1828 the family removed to Manchester, N. H., 
and from thence to Peterborough, where the eldest daugh- 
ter died, at the age of twenty-seven years. In 1838 the 
family settled in Nashua, where the parents died, and 
where the son has ever since resided. 

The early portion of General Stevens's life was passed in 
alternate labor and study. His aspirations for a 'classical 
education and professional life were checked by want of 
means, and at the age of sixteen he was apprenticed to tjie 
trade of a machinist, and for several years pursued the 
occupation in connection with school teaching in the winter 
and occasional terms of study at the Nashua academies. 
In 1842 he commenced the study of law, was admitted to 
th e bar in 1845, and at once entered upon a rge and in- 
creasing practice, which continued until he left the state 
for the field, at the breaking out of the Rebellion. 

Mr. Stevens filled the office of Solicitor of Hillsborough 



97 

county for five years, represented Nashua in the House of 
Representatives four years, and was active in politics as a 
Whig and Republican from his earliest majority. 

At the breaking out of the Rebellion he volunteered his 
services, which were at once accepted, and he left for the 
seat of war as Major of the First New Hampshire Volun- 
teers. On the 19th of May, 1861, just before leaving for 
the field, he was married to Adelaide M., daughter of Ed- 
ward A. Johnson, Esq., of Nahant, Mass. The following 
year he was commissioned as Colonel of the Thirteenth 
Regiment of New Hampshire Volunteers, a superb regi- 
ment, whose fortunes he followed until the close of the 
war, participating with them in all their battles. 

In the campaign of 18(34 he commanded a brigade on 
the right of Grant's line in front of Petersburg. In Sep- 
tember of that year, while leading his command in the 
assault upon Fort Harrison, he was severely wounded, 
rendering him a cripple for life. 

General Stevens was with his regiment mustered out of 
service in June, 1865, and resumed his practice at Nashua. 
In March, 1867, he was elected to Congress by the people 
of the Second District, and reelected to the Forty-first Con- 
gress in 1869. He has always preserved his acquaintance 
with the citizens of his native town, and joined with great 
interest and pleasure in the exercises of our anniversary. 



SAMUEL H. TAYLOR, LL. D. 

The emigrant ancestor of Samuel Harvey Taylor, whose 
name was Matthew, came to Londonderry in the emigra- 
tion of 1722. He held the title deeds of his broad acres 
from Lieutenant-Governor John "Wentworth, to whom a 
large farm in the southeasterly part of the town had pre- 



98 

viously been granted by the original proprietors. This 
same tract was fifty years before the property and in pos- 
session of John Leverett, Governor of the Massachusetts 
Colony, from 1673 to 1G79. He held this land under 
grant from that Colony, and it is called in the records a 
" wildernesse farme of one thousand acres," and there is 
little doubt that a half filled cellar, northerly of and near 
to Leverett's bridge, marks the site of a cabin built by 
some adventurer in the interest of Governor Leverett. 

Dr. Taylor is a lineal descendant from Matthew in the 
third generation, and on these domains, once the posses- 
sion of governors, he first saw the light. He was born 
October 8, 1807, the eldest son of the late Deacon James 
Taylor, a man of great energy of character and high Chris- 
tian principle. Like most of the Deny boys, Harvey, as 
he was familiarly called, in remembrance of the maiden 
name of his great-grandmother, fitted for college at Pink- 
erton Academy. He entered the Sophomore Class in 
Dartmouth, in 1829, and graduated in 1832. The same 
year he entered the Theological Seminary at Andover, 
Mass., and graduated in 1837. He was assistant teacher 
in Phillips Academy in 1834-5, tutor in Dartmouth College 
in 1836-7, and has been Principal of Phillips Academy, at 
Andover, Mass., from 1837 to the present time. 

He has prepared, from the German, " Krebs's Guide for 
Writing Latin ;" " Kiihner's Elementary Greek Grammar;" 
and, in connection with Professor B. B. Edwards, " Kiih- 
ner's Larger Greek Grammar." He has also published* a 
"Memorial of Joseph P. Fairbanks;" "Method of Classical 
Study;" and " Classical Study: Its usefulness illustrated by 
Selections from the Writings of Eminent Scholars," with 
an Introduction by himself. Since 1852, during these 
varied employments, Dr. Taylor has been one of the editors 
of the " Bibliotheca Sacra." 

He married Caroline P. Parker, daughter of the late 





p O^vi j&6 




Z--0. 



lt~C u 



.,nMi TTQHT*t "■> ,v Hill* ,:■ . n m BOSTO* 



99 

Rev. Edward L. Parker, December 8, 1837, and has three 
children living: James Edward, George Harvey, and Arthur 
Fairbanks. Charles Henry, the third child, died at the age 
of eleven years. 



HON. JAMES A. WESTON. 

The ancestors of the Weston families in this country came 
from Buckinghamshire, England, early in the seventeenth 
century. Their name occurs frequently in the records of 
colonial affairs during that period, and in connection with 
such events as to indicate that they were of leading positive 
character. One of these men is mentioned as a prominent 
representative to the first General Court in Massachusetts, 
as one of the founders of the first Baptist church in 
America, and as a man of such integrity and ability as to 
" occasion the prayers of all good people that his life should 
be of much duration." They came to New England during 
the time when large companies, often of kins-people influ- 
enced by the controversy between Parliament and Charles 
I., sought together a home in the "new land," and were 
probably of the same or kindred families. 

Hon. James A. Weston, of Manchester, N. H., is the 
lineal descendant from John Weston, who came to America 
in 1644, and finally settled in Reading, Mass., in 1652. 
His genealogy* includes men who have been prominent 
and useful in promoting the public welfare, and distin- 

* John Weston, born in Buckinghamshire, England, 1631, settled in Read- 
ing, Mass., 1652. 

John Weston, born at Reading, 1661. 

Samuel Weston, born at Reading, 1689. 

Jonathan Weston, born at Reading, 1731. 

Amos Weston, born at Reading, 1767; moved to Manchester, N. H., 1803. 

Amos Weston, born at Reading, 1791. 

James A. Weston, born at Manchester, 1827. 



100 

guished for their superior financial and executive ability. 

His grandfather, Amos Weston, came to New Hampshire 
in 1803, and settled on what is known as the "Old Weston 
farm," situated in the southeasterly part of Manchester, 
about two and one-half miles from the City Hall. It is in 
a section which was formerly a part of Londonderry. 

His father, Amos Weston, Esq., who will long be remem- 
bered for the faithful and efficient discharge of every duty, 
and as prominent and influential in shaping and completing 
public enterprises and transacting the business of town 
and county in that judicious manner upon which so much 
of common prosperity depends, purchased lands and made 
him a home adjoining their family homestead, where he 
continued to reside until 1853, when he moved to the cor- 
ner of Myrtle and Maple streets, in the city proper, at 
which place he lived during the remainder of his life. 

In 1814 he married Betsey Wilson, who was the daughter 
of the well-known Col. Robert Wilson, and granddaughter 
of James Wilson, who came from Londonderry, Ireland, 
about 17*28, and settled at the place now known as Wilson's 
Crossing, in Londonderry, N. H. Colonel Robert Wilson 
was born about 1730, and succeeded his father in the pos- 
session of their original farm, where he resided during his 
life. Betsey Wilson was born on the same old place, Feb- 
ruary 21, 1788, where she resided until her marriage. 
She died March 12, 1856. Amos Weston died June 1, 
1858. 

Mr. Weston, the subject of this sketch, was the youngest 
of five children, and is the only surviving member of the 
family of Amos and Betsey Weston. He was born on the 
"old Weston farm," August 27, 1827, where he remained 
most of the time until 1846, engaged in assisting his father 
upon the farm, except when attending school and teaching. 
He was educated chiefly at the district school and at the 
Manchester and Piscataquog academies, but pursued his 
studies, — devoting his attention to his chosen profession, 



101 

civil engineering, — at home, until he became highly pro- 
ficient in that science. He taught school in Manchester 
and in Londonderry. 

In 1846 he was made assistant engineer, and commenced 
work on the Concord railroad, laying the second track. In 
1847 he moved to Concord, N. H., and was appointed chief 
engineer of that road, which position he has held ever 
since. For several years, in connection with the office of 
engineer, he acted as road master and master of transpor- 
tation on the Concord and Manchester and Lawrence roads. 

In 1854 he married Anna S. Gilmore, daughter of 
Mitchel Gilmore, Esq., of Concord, and in 1856 removed 
to Manchester, where he has since resided, devoting him- 
self principally to his profession. As chief engineer, he 
superintended the construction of the Manchester and 
Candia railroad and the Suncook Valley railroad, and aided 
very essentially, by skillful and judicious management, in 
bringing those important works to a state of completion in 
the shortest possible time. He has attained a position of 
eminence in his profession, as one of the most proficient 
and accomplished civil engineers in the country. 

Mr. Weston was the Democratic candidate for the may- 
oralty of Manchester, N. H., in 1862 and 1863, winning in 
the vote more than the party strength, and although the 
Democrats were greatly in the minority, was elected to that 
office for 1868, and again for 1870. No one of the many 
distinguished gentlemen who have held that position has 
conducted the affairs of the city more successfully than he, 
or discharged the various duties of an executive officer 
with more courtesy and consideration, as well as energy 
and decision, than have marked his official services. 

He is of retiring, undemonstrative manners, yet of posi- 
tive and well-formed opinions, and asserts himself more in 
results than by display and efforts for notoriety. His 
character is best illustrated by his profession of the civil 
engineer, upon whose skill and accuracy so many vast 



102 

undertakings depend. In vain to attempt the mighty- 
works now being wrought out in every direction wherever 
the interests of mankind demand, if not planned and per- 
fected with certainty by the engineer. All these wonderful 
achievements may be fully appreciated by the world, but 
the silent labor of those master minds wherein they were 
projected and first constructed will never be sufficiently 
honored. 



LETTERS. 



The following letters were received from gentlemen who 
had been invited to be present at the celebration, but who 
were unable to attend : 

[From Rev. Dr. McClure.] 

Londonderry, Ireland, June 4, 1869. 
My Dear Sir: 

I have been from home some time, attending the meet- 
ings of the General Assemblies in Edinburgh. This must 
be my apology for not writing to you sooner. Many thanks 
for your kind letter of invitation. However delightful it 
would be to be present at your one hundred and fiftieth 
anniversary, I must deny myself the pleasure. My occu- 
pations at home are so pressing and numerous that I can- 
not leave. The citizens of the parent Londonderry, in 
Ireland, will be greatly interested in your proceedings, and 
we trust everything will go on prosperously and well. I 
will be very glad to have, either by letter or newspaper, an 
account of the ceremonies. 

Very sincerely yours, 

WILLIAM McCLURE. 

R. C. Mack, Esqr., Londonderry, N". H. 



104 

[From Rev. Timothy G. Brainerd.] 

Grinnell, Iowa, June 8, 1869. 
R. C. Mack, Esq. : 

Bear Sir, — The invitation to be present and join with 
the thousands who will meet and celebrate the tri-semi- 
centennial of the settlement of " Old Londonderry" is 
received. Circumstances forbid my being present in body, 
though I shall be in spirit, on that occasion. 

It would afford me great pleasure to see the faces, and 
exchange congratulations with so many friends, and to re- 
view with them God's dealings with the early settlers and 
their descendants during some five generations. 

Nearly thirty years ago, an aged Scotch Irish woman as- 
sured me that the men of my parish of that day had greatly 
degenerated from their fathers. But is this so? Have not 
the sons been worthy of their sires ? Will not the descend- 
ants of these, whether found in " Nuffield," or scattered 
abroad throughout the land, compare favorably with the 
descendants of any colonists who have settled in this coun- 
try? Are they not now, and have they not always been, 
true patriots and the unflinching supporters of civil and 
religious liberty ? Have they not always planted and sus- 
tained, side by side, the institutions of learning and re- 
ligion ? 

I write not these things to flatter, but to remind the 
rising generation that these are the traits of character which 
have rendered their ancestors illustrious, and given them a 
world-wide renown, and that if they will honor the blood 
which flows in their veins, they must be like them and do 
like them. Then, when another one hundred and fifty 
years have rolled away, their posterity will gather in 
greater numbers on this consecrated ground to bless their 
memories and to swear eternal fealty to the grand princi- 



105 

pies of their fathers, which have suffered no dim eclipse, 
but have grown brighter as the centuries circle round. 

With sentiments of respect and loving remembrance to 
old acquaintances, I remain, 

Yours truly, 

TIMOTHY G. BRAINERD. 



[From Hon. William W. Campbell.] 

Cherry Valley, New York, June 3, 1869. 
R. C. Mack, Esq. : 

Dear Sir, — I have a partiality for such celebrations as 
you propose for the 10th instant.- They tend to keep green 
and fresh the memories of a noble race of men. The de- 
scendants of the men who planted the settlement of Lon- 
donderry may refer with pride to their colonial ancestry. 
Their sturdy independence, their devotion to the cause of 
education and a pure religion, placed them at least on a 
level with the best of the early Puritan colonists, 

I would be pleased to unite with you as a pilgrim wor- 
shiper at the shrine of my fathers, on the coming anniver- 
sary ; but I have been absent from home all the past 
winter and spring, and cannot now leave again. 

Very respectfully, 

WILLIAM W. CAMPBELL. 



[From Hon. James Wilson.] 

Keene, June 6, 1869. 
My Dear Sir: 

Yours of the 4th instant came to hand last evening. It 
has been my fixed purpose to be at Derry on the 10th in- 
stant, ever since I knew of the proposed celebration of the 
one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of 



106 

the town, but I am compelled to advise you that it is, and 
will be, I fear, out of my power to fulfill that purpose. 

I shall never forget my old Scotch Irish ancestry, and 
shall be with you in spirit on that day. 

Yours truly, 

JAMES WILSON. 
E. C. Mack, Esq., Derry. 



[From Rev. Dr. Fitz.] 

Ipswich, Mass., May 24, 1869. 
R. C. Mack, Esq. : 

My Dear Sir, — I was very much gratified to receive 
your beautiful circular and your very respectful note. You 
may be assured that my feelings are all interested in the 
occasion of the observance of the one hundred and fiftieth 
anniversary of the settlement of " Nutfield." 

I thank you and the other gentlemen of the committee 
for designating me as one of the speakers. I cannot 
promise much in this direction, but will surely come if 
Providence permits, and will try to make a few desultory 
remarks touching some of the events and habits of the last 
fifty years or more. Should there be more speakers than 
there will be time to hear, I shall of course be content to 
be a hearer. 

I trust the occasion will be interesting and profitable to 
the towns specially interested in it. I have endearing as- 
sociations with Derry and Londonderry. My best wishes 
attend J ou an( ^ the occasion. 

With much esteem and affection, 

DANIEL FITZ. 



107 

[From Rev. Dr. Anderson.] 

Boston, Mass., May 21, 1869. 
Mr. R. C. Mack : 

My Dear Sir, — My ancestors being among the settlers 
of Londonderry, and my honored father a native, I found 
myself drawn to your one hundred and fiftieth anniversary, 
and I was glad to receive your kind invitation to be pres- 
ent ; but my relations and duties are such that I must go 
in an opposite direction about that time, and so must lose 
the advantage and pleasure of a stimulus to my Scotch 
Irish blood. I shall be with you in spirit, and may the 
God of our fathers add his blessing to the occasion. 

I am, dear sir, 

Very respectfully and truly yours, 

RUFUS ANDERSON. 



ANTIQUARIAN TENT. 



In a small tent, near the large one, the following articles 
were on exhibition. They were mainly collected in Derry 
and Londonderry, and multitudes of people manifested 
much interest in the examination of them : 

A model of ancient stocks, used for punishing sleepers 
in church, and other offenders, made by Mr. B. F. Gregg. 

A hog-yoke one hundred and twenty-five years old, illus- 
trating the by-law on the town records providing that all 
hogs shall be yoked from the first of June until the last of 
September. 

Various Indian implements found in Londonderry. » 

A pane of glass from the second dwelling-house erected 
in town, two inches wide by three inches long. 

The lunch box of John Wallace, the ancestor of Rev. 
Dr. C. W. Wallacej contributed by Mrs. Jonathan Aiken. 

A scout-horn, used in watering linen. 

Plates brought over from Ireland in 1720, by emigrants, 
who, soon after embarking, were captured by a pirate ship. 
Soon after the capture, a daughter was born to one of the 
emigrants on board the pirate ship, to whose possession the 
plates subsequently fell. They are now the property of her 
great-grand daughter. 

A large iron pot, brought from Ireland in 1718, and used 
in common by the first sixteen families, for culinary pur- 
poses. 



110 

An iron tackle from the ship which brought over the first 
colonists in 1718. 

The barrel of the first drum used in the town. 

A pair of ancient snow-shoes, from Mr. Foster T. Bailey. 

An ancient compass, which was used in surveying and 
laying out many towns in Hillsborough county. 

Candle-wood torches and tinder-box. 

Hackle for carding flax. 

An ancient foot-stove. 

A powder-horn, used at the siege of Deny, in Ireland, 
and brought over by Rev. James McGregore, the first min- 
ister; also, Mr. McGregore's small horn drinking cup. 

Ancient sun-dial, once the property of Deacon 



(^^^-K^-t_^t^ ^/a&j£^~ire? 



s™ 



A curious ax, made one hundred and 
thirty years ago, by 




flolm 9flac/{^ 



Various implements, illustrating the manner of lighting 
the dwellings of the early settlers, among which was a 
large wooden candlestick, the portion containing the candle 
being elevated or depressed by a wooden screw. There 
was also a small and curious iron cup, attached to a hook, 
by which it was hung on the crane to keep the tallow in it 
warm. 

A large number of autographs of the early settlers and 
other prominent men of the town. 

A well-preserved pine-tree shilling, which was sent to 
Ireland soon after the settlement of the town, as a speci- 



Ill 

men of the currency, and there kept till 1842, when it was 
given to Dr. James McKeen, of Topsham, Maine. 

Photographs of silhouettes of Hon. John Prentice and 
Gen. George Reid. 




A pillion, contributed by Charles C. Parker, Esq. 

The McGregore coat of arms, contributed by Mr. Alex- 
ander McGregor. 

Samples of the wedding dresses of Elizabeth Clark and 
Annis Wallace. 

Besides these, there were twenty specimens of the soil 
and rock of the old town, from as many localities,— from 
the " Five-and-twenty acre Meadow," from " Brandy Rock," 
" Moose Hill," " Swords Point Meadow," "Liggitt's Hill," 
"Rumney Marsh," the "Standing Stone," "Wigwam 
Meadow," " Leverett's Meadow," etc., etc. 



TAG-SIMILES OF AUTOGRAPHS 

OF PROMINENT LONDONDERRY MEN. 



fe^t fyrtJ-Z-; 



Came to Londonderry from Boston, Mass., as early as 
1719. He was of English descent, and to him, more than 
any one, is the " English Range," in Perry, where he set- 
tled, indebted for its name. He was the first town clerk. 




The well-known Major Rogers, of the French and Indian 
wars. He was born in Londonderry, and his death oc- 
curred in England. A grandson bearing the same name 
of the Ranger resides in Derry. 



Mu^euu. 



Like most of the grantees of Londonderry, John Wallace 
settled and lived upon his " Home Lot," and there he died 
in 1777. His was the fourth lot in the Aiken's Range, the 
same that is now owned and occupied by his great grand- 
son, David H. Pinkerton, Esq. 
8 



114 




-JkoJXjitmr. 



The first minister of Londonderry, was 
born in 1677, and died in 1729. During 
his brief pastorate of ten years, his influ- 
ence in town was unbounded in matters 
temporal as well as spiritual. 

A Gun carried in the famous siege of 
Deny, in 1688-89, is now in possession of 
A. F. Hall, Esq., of Manchester, N. H. 
Additional interest attaches to it from the 
fact that Mr. MacGregor always carried it 
into his pulpit on the Sabbath, well loaded 
and primed, to be ready in case of sudden 
attack by the " Indian enemy." It is well 
represented by the artist. 



Settled in 1725, on a fine tract of land 
north of Lake Shoneeto, otherwise called 
Beaver Pond. He was a man of parts, and 
the town often availed itself of his schol- 
arly attainments in matters pertaining to 
its municipal affairs. He died in 1775, on 
the evening of the day of the battle of 
Bunker Hill. 



115 



Better known as Justice McKeen, was a man of much con- 
sequence in the infant colony. He died in 1756. Among 
his many descendants are the Rev. Dr. Silas McKeen, of 
Bradford, Vermont, and Dr. James McKeen, of Topsham* 
Maine. 

The first person born in Londonderry was 



Jjn^M^ 



1%\^-ri£&&^ 



This event occurred September 8, 1719. He was an uncle 
of Hon. Jeremiah Smith. He removed to Peterborough, 
N. H., and thence to Vermont, where he died in 1778. 




ifcjfrptWi^ 



The first minister of the West Parish, was born in 1709. 
He died May 30, 1777. 




Born of honorable parentage, January 19, 1766, early en- 
gaged in trade, and was long a leading merchant in the 
West Parish in Londonderry. He served as town clerk 
three years, representative three years, and selectman 
eleven. In 1819 he removed to New York, taking with 
him seven sons and three daughters, all of whom are living 
and occupying positions of affluence and high respecta- 
bility. 






116 



Lived on the farm now owned by Aaron Parker Hardy, in 
Londonderry. He married Mary Wilson, who was born 
on board the famous pirate ship in 1720. He died October 
30, 1791, and is described by one who knew him well, as a 
" kind-hearted man, and a man of prayer." 

Was an eminent physician. He also kept tavern many 
years, and enjoyed great popularity as a landlord. He 
lived on the home lot originally laid out to John McNeil, 
and was the first postmaster of Londonderry. 




Dr. Morrison was settled over the West Parish, in Lon- 
donderry, February 12, 1783, and continued its minister 
until his death, March 9, 1818. 




Long a successful merchant of Salem, Mass., died in 1799. 
To his sagacity and enterprise the country is indebted for 
the opening up of trade with the East Indies. He was 
father of General 



117 



6^ #«* ^f^^i . 

Who resided a few years where the Hon. John Prentice had 
previously lived. He was the father of Hon. Elias H. 
Derby, of Boston, Mass., whose portrait may be found else- 
where in this volume. 

Was a native of Windham, N. H., but married in London- 
derry, and there he lived for many years. In his younger 
days he employed himself in teaching, and had the reputa- 
tion of being a man of unusual intelligence. He was a 
fair representative of the Argyle stock. He died at Fletch- 
er, Vt., April 11, 1813. 

Was born in 1716, in the county of Antrim, in Ireland. 
He came to Londonderry in 1736, lived in the West 
Parish, and died March 28, 1800. 

" The sweet remembrance of the just 
Shall flourish though they sleep in dust." 




Son of Deacon Thomas Patterson, was born June 4, 1789. 
In 1815 he took up his residence in New York. In 1837 
and 1838, he was Representative in Congress from the 
Genesee district of that state. He died August 14, 1838. 



118 



DIVISION OF LONDONDERRY. 

In 1827 the town was divided. The West Parish retained 
the old name, while the East Parish was incorporated 
under the name of Derry. The following named men 
were in active life at that time: 















I 






/^ 




<^ /Cy/ZZZ/jr^iSJ 'fTi 





# 

Of these men, all are dead except the last. 



THE DINNER, ETC. 



The number of people gathered to participate in the cele- 
bration was immense. It was judged by men used to esti- 
mating public assemblies, that not less than ten thousand 
were present. 

The dinner was a bountiful and substantial one, and it 
can be truthfully said " a great multitude was fed." Some 
idea of the quantity of food furnished can be gathered when 
it is stated that a half ton of corned beef was provided, five 
hundred pounds of ham, five hundred pounds of tongue, be- 
sides an immense quantity of doughnuts, pies, tarts, cake, 
etc., provided by nearly every family in the town of Deny, 
Londonderry and Windham, together with baker's bread 
and an abundance of delicious coffee. Plates and provi- 
sions were passed through the tent, and all were served with 
more alacrity than we sometimes find at what are called 
first-class hotels. The ladies of old Londonderry deserve 
very much credit for the excellent cooking which they fur- 
nished on this occasion. The dinner was a social one, and 
a communion of friends which lasted more than an hour. 

During the forenoon session, Gilmore's Band played most 
exquisitely the following music : " Nightingale Polka," 
" Soldier," from " Duchess," " Polka," Arbuckle, " Colum- 
bus Galop ; " and after dinner, " Star Spangled Banner," 
" Bonnie Doon," " Battle Cry of Freedom," with inimitable 
variations by Arbuckle, John Brown, etc. 



120 

The newspaper press was represented at the celehration 
by reporters from the " Manchester Daily Mirror," and 
" Manchester Daily Union," the " Concord Monitor," and 
Concord "Statesman," the " New York Tribune," the 
"Boston Journal," " Advertiser" and "Herald," the "Am- 
herst Cabinet," the " Nashua Gazette," and the " Tele- 
graph," and the Lawrence " Sentinel." 

« 

The Derry squad of Amoskeag Veterans were accom- 
panied by a band of veteran drummers and fifers, who 
made music like that of " ye olden time." The following 
are their names : 

Drummers — Major Beals, of Chester ; Major Brickett, of 
Derry ; Charles Abbott, of Concord ; Major Lear, of Epsoln. 

Fifers — Major Gove, of Concord ; E. H. Brown, of Law- 
rence ; C. F. Wheeler, of Derry ; William Leach, of Derry. 

Among the many distinguished persons from other states 
who were upon the speakers' stand, were Hon. John Bell 
Dinsmore, of Ripley, N. Y., and his brother, Hon. James 
Dinsmore, of Kentucky ; Rev. Dr. Silas McKeen, of Brad- 
ford, Vermont ; Dr. James McKeen, of Topsham, Maine ; 
Hon. William B. Dinsmore, of New York City; Isaiah 
Dickey, Esq., of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ; John P. Dickey, 
Esq., and William G. Dickey, Esq., of Livingston County, 
New York ; Rev. James Aiken, of Hanover, Mass. ; Hon. 
Samuel F. Humphrey, of Bangor, Maine ; John Pinkerton, 
Esq., John Anderson, Esq., and William S. Anderson, 
Esq., of Boston. A few ladies were upon the platform, 
and graced the occasion by their presence. 

The compiler of the preceding pages acknowledges val- 
uable assistance from many friends, especially from Hon. 
Charles H. Bell, of Exeter ; and he would not forget the 
kindness of Hon. George W. Patterson, Hon. Elias H. 
Derby, and Mrs. Mark Baker, of Tilton, N. H., to whose 
thoughtful generosity the readers of this volume are in- 
debted for many of its autographs. 



POEM. 

[The following poem, from the pen of Dr. Sylvanus Brown, was written 
for the occasion, but received to late to be read.] 

The red men from jSTutfield have melted away; 
There are none left to join us in worship to-day.' 
We find their spent arrows, but never a bone, 
And the place of their graves here to us is unknown. 

Our sires bought their land here, some good twelve miles 

square, 
And held from their sachem a title deed fair ; 
So they with our fathers were never at war, 
For oppression and plunder all good men abhor. 

They gathered for worship beneath an oak tree, 
And the spot is still marked with a stone, as Ave see ; 
And raising their hearts and their voices in prayer, 
Invoked His protection who first led them there. 

McGregor his flock like a shepherd did feed, 
A shining exemplar in word and in deed, 
He led them in worship and joined them in work, 
Xor did their good pastor from field-labor shirk. 

They had one way of worship, and went to one place, 
Not split into parties themselves to disgrace. 
They were called the Scotch Irish — no matter the name, 
Or whether from Shem, Ham or Japhet they came ; 
They were plain working people, and ate their own bread. 
The naked they clothed, the hungry they fed. 

When the land they had purchased they farming begun ; 
They smote down the forests and let in the sun; 
They made them log cabins, and Gregg built a mill, 
Where sawing and grinding are carried on still. 



122 



They planted them orchards, and good cider made, 
And wielded the ax, and the plow, and the spade, 
The hoe and the scythe, and the pitchfork and rake, 
And all, but the lazy, good livings could make. 

Their ashes are resting on yon goodly hill ; 
Perhaps their freed spirits are guarding us still. 
We will cherish their virtues and memories here, 
Who carried their dead to the grave on a bier. 

Then welcome to us this memorial day ! 

Ere the like shall return we shall most pass away, 

To mingle with spirits akin to our own, 

To see as we're seen, and to know as we're known. 



LETTER FROM GOV. SHUTE TO COLONEL 
JOHN WHEELWRIGHT.* 



[Through the research and kindness of Colonel A. H. Hoyt, of Boston, ed- 
itor of the "New England Historical and Genealogical Eegister," the follow- 
ing interesting and valuable letter is now, for the first time, made public. 
Colonel Wheelwright, it will be remembered, was one of the original grantees 
of Londonderry. — K. C. M.] 

Boston, October 10 th 1719. 
Sir, 

Yours of the 9 th of October came safe to my hands with 
the Inclosed that you sent me at Piscataqua. What you 
said to me at Salem I remembered when the Assembly sat 
at Piscataqua and granted no Township to the Irish f Peo- 
ple at Nutfield, neither did they acquaint me that they were 
warned off: I am very much of your Opinion that let the 
land belong to whom it will it will be advantageous to the 
Country to have these People upon it, and cou'd heartily 
wish that I might receive some account from Great Britain 

NOTES BY COLONEL HOYT. 

* Colonel or Judge John Wheelwright, of Wells, Maine, was a son 
of Samuel, of Wells, and grandson of the famous Rev. John, of Exeter, etc- 
It was from this Colonel Wheelwright that the settlers of Nutfield, afterwards 
Londonderry, purchased their lands. Governor Shute and the Council of the 
Province of New Hampshire granted the township an act of incorporate 
Jane 21, 1722, after repeated petitions for the grant. The petitions were lai 1 
upon the table, and the matter postponed by the Council from time to tin 
on account of the unsettled boundary line between Massachusetts and New 
Hampshire. 

t /The settlers of Nutfield did not relish this title. See address of those peo- 
ple to Gov. Shute, in Belknap, vol. iii., 346-49. 



124 

to whom the unsettled Lands in New-Hampshire belong. 
As to the Grant that you have from the Indian Sagamoors 
I have perused it, and think it the strongest that ever I 
read — but am informed that when it was shewn in Eng- 
land there was little or no regard paid to it. 

I shall be very thankfull of the 500 Acres $ that you 
offer me if you can make me a good title to it — and shall 
be willing to do you all the Service in that affair that lys 
in my power. If that five hundred Acres that you offer 
me falls in Massachusetts District no doubt but then your 
Title is good, therefore I cou'd heartily wish that the lines 
betwixt the two Provinces were Settled, for I'm sure if 
New Hampshire complains home as they say they will, you 
will fare much worse than if it's settled amongst your- 
selves, for tho' you say the Danube and Other Rivers carry 
their Name even to the Sea, without any Alteration, yet I 
Know other Rivers that do not — As for Instance, from the 
Mouth of the Sea to Roterdam and fifty Miles farther there 
is a River called the Mayes, but when it comes to Nurim- 
inguen, it is called the Wall, and ten Miles farther it is 
called the Old Rine, and I'm told by very Knowing People 
that the River Merrymack does not keep its name to the 
Scourse of that water. I am Sir 

Your hum bie Servant 

SAMLL SHUTE.§ 

I Governor Shute received a grant of five hundred acres of land, together 
with a " Home Lot" of sixty acres from the proprietors of Londonderry. 

§ Governor Shute was appointed to succeed Colonel Dudley as Governor of 
Massachusetts and New Hampshire, November, 1715; held the office about 
six years ; returned to England in 1723 ; died in 1742. He seems to have been 
a fair-minded man and an upright magistrate, but he had a hard time of it 
with the impracticable spirits around him. He was an early and steadfast 
friend of the settlers of Nutfield. 



EKEATUM. 
Pa^e 38, 7th line from bottom, for "Persia" read Bussia. 



s^> 



